Park atop Presidio Parkway nears opening

A new 14-acre park built on top of freeway tunnels near the Golden Gate Bridge is set to open to the public on July 17, completing a decades-old vision by a Mill Valley architect.

The project, known as the “Presidio Tunnel Tops,” is the San Francisco Presidio’s latest metamorphosis in its nearly 250-year-old history. Construction took more than two years.

The free public park will include new paths, picnic areas, lawns, native plant gardens, a community campfire site, youth education centers and playgrounds — all with sweeping views of landmarks such as the Marin Headlands, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Angel Island and the city skyline.

The $118 million park also reconnects Crissy Field on the San Francisco waterfront to the Presidio’s Main Post, the parade grounds and visitor center for the first time in nearly 90 years. The areas were separated by the construction of Doyle Drive that led to and from the Golden Gate Bridge before the tunnels, known as the Presidio Parkway, were built in 2015.

“Once every couple of generations, you get to do a project like this,” said Christine Lehnertz, executive director of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The conservancy is a nonprofit partner with the National Park Service that raised $98 million in donations for the $118 million project.

The project was led by the Presidio Trust, a federal agency created after the U.S. Army base closed in 1994 and was given to the National Park Service. The agency provided $20 million in funding for the project.

Michael Boland, chief park officer with the Presidio Trust, said the completion of the Tunnel Tops park represents a “pinnacle” moment in the decades-long effort to convert the once concrete- and asphalt-laden former U.S. Army base into a public park. Preceding the Tunnel Tops was the conversion of Crissy Field from a military airstrip into a 1.5-mile-long waterfront park in 2001. In 2011, the large parking lot was converted into green space at the Presidio’s parade ground.

“This was all asphalt and freeway,” Boland said while standing atop the Tunnel Tops on Thursday. “Crissy Field was 100 acres of asphalt and hard-packed dirt. All three of these projects together, we have removed hundreds of acres of asphalt and turned it into parks.”

The Presidio has a long history of change. First created as an outpost for the Spanish army in 1776, the bayside landscape was eventually transferred to the Mexican government in 1822 and then to the U.S. government during the Mexican-American War in 1847.

But it was the vision of Mill Valley landscape architect Michael Painter in the 1990s that was most responsible for the creation of the Tunnel Tops park.

In 1936, the Presidio was divided by the construction of Doyle Drive, a 1.5-mile elevated road built through the New Deal that would connect to the soon-to-be-completed Golden Gate Bridge. However, the road, with its narrow lanes and unstable soil below, was prone to crashes and earthquakes. The federal government gave the road a 2 out of 100 safety rating.

While Caltrans envisioned upgrading the road with a similar design, Painter saw an opportunity to lower the road and better fit into the surrounding natural environment without blocking views of the bay or bridge. His design became the $1.1 billion Presidio Parkway, which featured the two tunnels and was completed in 2015. Painter died in June 2018 at the age of 83 as planning for the Tunnel Tops park was underway.

“It was just a park waiting to be found, and he found it,” Lehnertz said of Painter.

The park will be part of the larger Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding this October. San Francisco resident Amy Meyer worked with the Sierra Club and local politicians as part of the campaign that eventually helped create the park, which includes areas such as the Marin Headlands, Presidio and Alcatraz Island.

Meyer described the new park as “unimaginably wonderful” given that it will now allow for a contiguous route through one of the park’s most popular areas.

“This is government and advocacy at its height,” Meyer said.

The design of the new park works to blend in seamlessly with other areas of the Presidio, Boland said, whether it is using reclaimed cypress lumber from the area for its benches or the 100,000 native plants spread throughout the landscape.

Even the playgrounds work to weave in the history and features of the Presidio. They include play structures that resemble the nests of native hawks and orioles, and water troughs that harken to the Presidio’s past role as the city’s main water supply. An interactive education center provides hands-on learning about the Presidio’s native flora and fauna.

“It’s really all about challenging themselves, for young people to challenge themselves and take risks so they fall in love with the outdoors,” Boland said.

The park also will have new food options, including areas designated for food trucks as well as a new restaurant by Colibri, which runs a Mexican restaurant in the Presidio. The restaurant will serve pizza, beer, wine and other items, Boland said. Another food hall is being planned and is estimated to be completed in two years.

More information on the Tunnel Tops park and events on its opening day can be found at presidiotunneltops.gov.