Freeway removal revives sections of San Francisco

San Francisco’s newest multiway boulevard will be completed by mid-September, further aiding the revival of what had been a bedraggled portion of the Hayes Valley neighborhood southwest of downtown. The four-block thoroughfare, known as Octavia Boulevard, replaces a part of the Central Freeway that was damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Allan B. Jacobs and Elizabeth Macdonald, two of the co-authors of The Boulevard Book (see Sept. 2002 New Urban News), designed the new roadway with the staff of the city’s Public Works Department. The boulevard carries four lanes of through vehicles in its center, where a landscaped median separates the opposing directions of traffic. Two other landscaped medians, each lined with traditional-style streetlights, separate the center lanes from other pavement designated for slower-moving local traffic and curbside parking. Robin Levitt, a local architect who supported the boulevard during contentious citywide referendums, says the medians, planted with allées of trees and furnished in some areas with benches, will establish a refreshing atmosphere in what was once a place of traffic exhaust and noise. The act of getting rid of the double-decker freeway’s damaged upper level — it was torn down in 1990 — helped bring “a major transformation” to an area previously troubled by muggings and prostitution, Levitt says. Investment increased, especially in housing. Marshall Foster, an urban designer and planner for the city, says elimination of this portion of the Central Freeway did not cause traffic problems, as some had feared. “Caltrans couldn’t figure out where all the cars went,” he says. Because the boulevard occupies a 123-foot-wide right-of-way— less land than the old freeway used — there may be room to build housing along it. Housing will also be constructed on land that was taken for freeway construction years ago and that is available for redevelopment. Each “local access” portion of Octavia Boulevard consists of one lane for moving vehicles and one lane for parking. “People can walk in the street,” Josh Switzky of the Planning Department says of the side roadway. “It’s a little ambiguous. It’s meant to be ambiguous.” Redeveloping the Embarcadero A couple of miles to the northeast, the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway (also damaged in the 1989 earthquake) and its replacement by the Embarcadero Boulevard have given the city’s pedestrians much better access to a long stretch of San Francisco Bay and have spurred new investment along its perimeter. “All the piers are being rebuilt,” Foster says. “There’s a proposal for a major cruise ship terminal.” One especially popular project encouraged by the creation of the Embarcadero Boulevard was the conversion of the landmark 107-year-old Ferry Building into a collection of busy restaurants and shops. The Embarcadero Boulevard has “three lanes in each direction, but woven into the place,” he observes. Restored streetcars from around the world run in its median and have been “a tremendous success,” he says. The boulevard and the streetcars together have been “a boon to Fisherman’s Wharf, a 1950s-style tourist attraction” that had begun to wane, he adds. The next stage of freeway reclamation will involve major construction on Rincon Hill, a 55-acre area on the southern edge of downtown, where the Embarcadero Freeway ran inland to link with other freeways. The city is looking to develop that neglected commercial and industrial area with slender 40- to 50-story residential towers separated by townhouses and four-to-eight-story buildings — much like the pattern in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia (see Dec. 2003 New Urban News). The 12-block area could gain 7,500 housing units and nearly 20,000 residents. “It will be quite a dense neighborhood, about 350 dwelling units per acre in a very concentrated area,” Switzky says. “We’re taking a ‘living streets’ approach,” he explains. Some streets will have the number of traffic lanes reduced, while some one-way streets will be converted to two-way. Off-street parking will be limited to one off-street space per two housing units as of right. A developer who wants to install more parking must demonstrate that the additional spaces will not detract from transit service or pedestrian improvements. The added spaces must be tandem or valet parking or be in mechanical stackers, and all parking will have to be below ground. Groundbreaking took place in March for the first Rincon Hill projects. Eight-hundred-fifty housing units were under construction this summer. By the end of the year, a total of at least 1,500 units will be under construction. u