Union Square
client: City of San Francisco, Union Square Association
scope: Urban Design & Landscape Architecture
location: San Francisco, CA
stage: Completed
bioregion: Mediterranean: Central California Coast

April Philips Design Works, Inc. joined forces in a joint venture with MD Fotheringham to form Philips/Fotheringham Partnership. The design celebrates San Francisco and is an evolutionary idea—a formal and programmatic open space solution organized on a set of bi-symmetrical cross-axes and stepped terraces. A grand central terrace, focused on the Dewey Memorial at the heart of the Square, is framed by retail uses and a permanent stage. Existing slopes of the garage roof are redesigned to create a level center with terraced edges of stairs, architecture and plantings. Ground plane design elements extend into bordering streets, expanding the presence of the Square to adjacent storefronts. The paving scheme symbolizes the site's natural heritage.