Civic Center, San Francisco

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Civic Center
UN Plaza
ZIP codes
94102, 94109
Area codes415/628
[3]
San Francisco Civic Center Historic District
San Francisco, California
Area45.6 acres (18.5 ha)
Built1912[5]
Architectural styleLate 19th and 20th Century revivals
Beaux-Arts
NRHP reference No.78000757[4]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 10, 1978[4]
Designated NHLDFebruary 27, 1987[6]

The Civic Center in

Veterans Building's Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the United Nations. It is also where the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco (the peace treaty that officially ended the Pacific War with the Empire of Japan, which had surrendered in 1945) was signed. The San Francisco Civic Center was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987[6] and listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1978.[4]

Location

The Civic Center is bounded by

Hayes Valley neighborhood on the west; Market Street separates it from the South of Market
, or "SoMa", neighborhood.

History

Proposed Civic Center from Burnham Plan of 1905. The large semi-circular plaza near the center is at the intersection of Market and Van Ness.

The first permanent San Francisco City Hall was completed in 1898 on a triangular-shaped plot in what later became Civic Center, bounded by Larkin, McAllister, and Market, after a protracted construction effort that had started in 1871; although the constructors had promised to complete work within two years, "honest graft" was an accepted practice, and the cost of the structure ballooned from $1 million as budgeted to $8 million.[7]: 170 

The Civic Center was built in the early 20th century after the earlier City Hall was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. Although the architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham had provided the city with plans for a neo-classical Civic Center shortly before the 1906 earthquake,[8] his plans were never carried out. Burnham's plan called for a large semi-circular plaza at the intersection of Market and Van Ness as a hub linking official buildings along spoked streets.[9]: 10–11 

Plan presented for Civic Center in April 1912 with portraits of Mayor Rolph and architectural team. Note the positions of City Hall (east of the central plaza, not west as constructed), and Art Gallery instead of State Building (north of the plaza).

Following the earthquake, a temporary city hall was established on Market Street, but planning for a permanent structure and civic center did not take place for several years. The current Civic Center was planned by a group of local architects, chaired by John Galen Howard.[7] The new Civic Center would consist of five main buildings facing a central rectangular plaza: City Hall, Auditorium, Main Library, Opera House, and State Office Building.[9]: 12  A bond was issued on March 29, 1912, for $8.8 million to carry out the construction of the new Civic Center; at the time, the city only owned the triangular-shaped plot where the old City Hall had stood prior to the earthquake.[10] A resolution passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors required the new City Hall to be built on the site of the old City Hall, so early plans for Civic Center showed City Hall east of the central plaza. Opinions solicited by the consulting architectural team led to the relocation of City Hall to the west side of the plaza.[9]: 12  Ground was broken for City Hall, the first building in the new Civic Center, on April 5, 1913.[11][10]

Finalized plan for Civic Center, 1916.

The current City Hall was completed in 1915, in time for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The second building to be started was Exposition Auditorium; at the time, plans included a new Main Library (to be built on the site of the old City Hall) but left the former Marshall Square (bounded by Larkin, Fulton, Hyde, and Grove) undeveloped.[10] Plans for a new opera house on Marshall Square had been dropped[10] The Main Library (1916), the California State Building (1926), War Memorial Opera House and its neighboring twin, the War Memorial Veterans Building (which together were the nucleus of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, completed in 1932), and the Old Federal Building (1936) were all completed after the Exposition. Civic Center Plaza was established by 1915, but not completed until 1925. Marshall Square remained undeveloped[9]: 12, 14  until the new Main Library was constructed there in the early 1990s.

During

Joseph L. Alioto
Performing Arts Piazza after the former mayor.

Its central location, vast open space, and the collection of government buildings have made and continue to make Civic Center the scene of massive political rallies. It has been the scene of massive

Gay Rights Movement. Activist Harvey Milk held rallies and gave speeches there. After his assassination on November 27, 1978, a massive candlelight vigil was held there. Later, it was the scene of the White Night Riots in response to the lenient sentencing of Dan White, Milk's assassin. Recently, Civic Center was the center point of same-sex marriage activism, as Mayor Gavin Newsom
married couples there.

Attractions and characteristics

Map
150m
160yds
none
21
James R. Browning United States Court of Appeals Building / 9th Cir.
20
San Francisco Federal Building
19
Civic Center/​UN Plaza
18
UN Plaza
17
SHN Orpheum Theatre
16
50 UN Plaza
15
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
14
Main Library
13
Pioneer Monument
12
Asian Art Museum
11
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
10
Civic Center Plaza
9
Earl Warren Building / Supreme Court of California
8
Phillip Burton Federal Building / US District Court, N.D. Cal.
7
San Francisco City Hall
6
San Francisco County Superior Court (Civic Center Courthouse)
5
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
4
Davies Symphony Hall
3
War Memorial Opera House
2
Herbst Theatre
1
California Public Utilities Commission
Selected locations in Civic Center, San Francisco 
  •  Government 
  •  Monuments 
  •  Culture 
  •  Parks and open spaces 
  •  Transit stops 
  •  Education 

1
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
16
50 UN Plaza
17
SHN Orpheum Theatre
18
UN Plaza
19
Civic Center/​UN Plaza
20
San Francisco Federal Building
21
James R. Browning United States Court of Appeals Building / 9th Cir.

Government center

The centerpiece of the Civic Center is the

Asian Art Museum, opened in 2004 in the former main branch building of the San Francisco Public Library, which moved to a newer building
constructed just south of Fulton in 1995.

North of City Hall is the

Field Office.[12] East of the main Civic Center complex on nearby Mission Street, is the head courthouse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which sits across 7th from the San Francisco Federal Building
complex.

Monuments

The

Simon Bolivar
.

Culture

West of City Hall on Van Ness Avenue is the

SHN Orpheum Theatre
are also located in Civic Center.

Parks and open spaces

The main open space just east of City Hall is

St. Patrick's Day parade, San Francisco's version of the Love Parade, and the San Francisco LovEvolution
party.

Renovated and re-opened on February 15, 2018, the Helen Diller Civic Center Playgrounds reside on the Northeast and Southeast corners of the Civic Center Plaza.

The Trust for Public Land to renovate the 20 year old playgrounds.[15] The playgrounds were funded by a generous $10 million donation from the Helen Diller Family Foundation.[14][15][16] The playgrounds serve many surrounding neighborhoods with limited open space such as the Tenderloin, Western Addition, Hayes Valley, and South of Market neighborhoods.[15]

Transit

Access to Civic Center is provided by the

F Market historic streetcar line and many Muni
bus lines also run nearby.

Education

Civic Center is the site of four famous higher education schools:

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. UC Hastings is located on the two blocks straddling Hyde between Golden Gate and McAllister. Academy of Art University owns two buildings in the neighborhood, and the buildings are used primarily for academic and administrative purposes.[17]

Other points of interest

The Fox Plaza condominium complex is also located nearby. The large art installation Firefly by Ned Kahn can be seen on the side of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission building on Golden Gate Avenue.

In December 2010, a set of innovative wind and solar hybrid streetlamps provided by

Urban Green Energy were installed[18]
as part of the center's vision for sustainability.

Selected photos

270° panorama.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Statewide Database". UC Regents. Archived from the original on February 1, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  2. ^ "California's 11th Congressional District - Representatives & District Map". Civic Impulse, LLC.
  3. ^ a b c "Civic Center neighborhood in San Francisco, California (CA), 94102, 94109 subdivision profile - real estate, apartments, condos, homes, community, population, jobs, income, streets".
  4. ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  5. ^ a b Charleton, James P. (November 9, 1984). "San Francisco Civic Center" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places – Inventory Nomination Form. National Park Service. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
  6. ^ a b "San Francisco Civic Center". National Historic Landmark Quicklinks. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-520-05263-3
    . Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  8. ^ Burnham, Daniel H.; Bennett, Edward H. (September 1905). O'Day, Edward F. (ed.). Report on a plan for San Francisco (Report). Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c d Civic Center Proposal (PDF) (Report). City and County of San Francisco, Office of Mayor Dianne Feinstein. November 1987. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d "Civic Center at San Francisco". Engineering Record: 489. October 31, 1914. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  11. ^ "Now for New City Hall". San Francisco Call. April 5, 1913. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  12. ^ "San Francisco Division." Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved on June 9, 2015. "450 Golden Gate Avenue, 13th Floor San Francisco, CA 94102-9523"
  13. ^ 2.6 acres, 1975, part of BART construction, Halprin as designer Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ a b "$10 million playgrounds give downtown SF kids a safe place to frolic". SFChronicle.com. February 16, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  15. ^ a b c "Helen Diller Playgrounds at Civic Center Improvements | San Francisco Recreation and Park". sfrecpark.org. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  16. ^ "Helen Diller Civic Center Playgrounds". The Trust for Public Land. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  17. ^ "Academy of Art University Campus Map" (PDF). academyart.edu. Academy of Art University. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  18. ^ Hybrid Street Lamp Hits San Francisco Archived 2010-12-20 at the Wayback Machine

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Civic Center, San Francisco.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for San Francisco/Civic Center-Tenderloin.
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