Presidio National Historic Landmark District Gets Accessible Update California
CASE STUDY
Following more than three years of construction and rehabilitation, the Presidio Trust and National Park Service (NPS) celebrated the opening of Presidio Tunnel Tops and Battery Bluff in 2022. The conclusion of the more than 30-year, multi-agency construction effort to replace
public. The Presidio Trust also launched an international competition to find a team to work with the community on design, selecting James Corner Field Operations, the team behind New York’s High Line. More than 10,000 people participated in the planning process. Once the design was complete, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy raised $98 million for the project from donors to make the project possible, with the Presidio Trust providing an additional $20 million in funding. Tunnel Tops officially opened to the public in July 2022. Located next to the Presidio Visitor Center and the Transit Center, Presidio Tunnel Tops features picnic sites, gardens and meadows, and scenic overlooks of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and downtown San Francisco. Its approachable design welcomes first time visitors to enjoy a variety of activities within the Presidio’s National Historic Landmark District. The Presidio Trust’s Community Partnerships team has leveraged its connections to welcome partner organizations to the new park spaces through events and programming, including cultural performances, festivals,
Battery Bluff, a six-acre picnic site and vista point atop the western set of Presidio Parkway tunnels near San Francisco National Cemetery, opened to the public in April 2022. Its name references the four historic coast artillery gun batteries located there–Blaney, Baldwin, Slaughter, and Sherwood—built by the U.S. Army between 1898 and 1903 to protect San Francisco Bay from naval attack. Over time, the batteries became damaged due to weather, neglect, and graffiti, and were partially buried by the construction of Doyle Drive in the 1930s. The Presidio Trust led the project of rehabilitating the batteries, partially uncovering and repairing them, removing graffiti, and installing interpretive waysides. With new sustainable landscaping and trails allowing walkers and bicyclists to travel safely to the Golden Gate Bridge, Battery Bluff has become an immediately popular park destination. Top: Tunnel Tops nearing completion (James Corner Field Operations) Center: Looking northwest from the picnic area at Battery Bluff, with Battery Slaughter in the background (Presidio Trust) Bottom: Presidio Tunnel Tops features a two-acre outdoor playground, called the Outpost, where kids can connect to the natural and cultural history of the Presidio. (Presidio Trust)
the outdated Doyle Drive freeway with the Presidio Parkway in 2019 paved the way for the aforementioned projects, delivering more than 40 acres of improved park landscape within the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Landmark District. The innovative design of the Presidio Parkway provided an opportunity to create 14 acres of new parkland on and around the eastern set of highway tunnels, reconnecting the waterfront to the center of the Presidio for the first time in 80 years. To make sure the new destination would be welcoming and accessible to people of all ethnicities, incomes, and abilities, in 2014 the Presidio Trust, NPS, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy began gathering ideas and feedback from the
Looking north over the Main Post and Tunnel Tops within the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Landmark District, CA (Chris Corner/ Presidio Trust)
Inset: Rehabilitated Battery Blaney, looking northeast from the Presidio Promenade trail (Presidio Trust)
and art installations. Youth development programs of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and NPS returned to an expanded campus at Presidio Tunnel Tops with new classrooms in a rehabilitated 1939 commissary building, labs, and an outdoor courtyard.
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IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A Report on Federal Historic Properties • 2024 | 95
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