Competition Submission Gallery

The jury acknowledged Market Street’s strength as a transit-rich zone and its visual power as a centerpiece of the city. But today’s reality can feel more like a troubled void due to empty office space and retail storefronts. While other areas of the city are thriving due to neighborhood scale and a mix of uses, Market Street lacks compelling reasons to gather or explore.The six ideas selected as winners all address these challenges in different — but complementary — ways.

A gallery of all qualified and disqualified submissions can be found here.

Top Awards & Special Recognition

  • Award for Creative Wayfinding and Nighttime Animation

    Flying Colors San Francisco Rebirth on Market Street

    Bionic

    Team Members: Marcel Wilson, Linghui Liao, Sarah Moos Thompson

    In addition to ideas that addressed the big structural challenges of Market Street, the jury was also looking for some ideas that could happen quickly and relatively inexpensively. This idea takes the notion of traditional light pole banners and puts a technology and wayfinding twist on them. Instead of fabric, these digital media mesh banners also light up at night and connect the dots for all the activities, events and venues along and adjacent to Market Street.

  • Award for Visionary Ecology and Urban Greening

    The Market Street Forest

    SUR

    Team Member: Christian Lavista

    The jury struggled to find what could be thought of as a powerful massive greening idea. While many submissions incorporated greenery at scale, few engaged deeply with the unique context and ecology of Market Street. This idea stands out for doing just that—albeit in a polemical way that, realistically, would take generations to realize (and might ultimately involve species other than redwoods). Jurors appreciated the dense tree planting and pedestrian-focused approach, noting that an investment in big trees on day one would be critical to its success. That’s okay: this proposal doesn’t prescribe a specific landscape so much as it reveals a forest that has been waiting to emerge.

  • Award for Radical Hospitality and Fast, Inclusive Public Space

    The 4 Mile Bench

    SITELAB urban studio

    Team Members: Alice An, Laura Crescimano, Alyssa Garcia, Julie Gawendo, Ashutosh Singhal, Lauren Wong

    The jury is asking us to use our imaginations on this one. This idea is a critique of how few places there are to sit, rest, or pause along Market Street by proposing a unifying element. It doubles down on a joyful gesture that runs counter to most current approaches to public space by adding, not removing, places to relax. It creates a critical mass of seating that invites all people to engage in the grandeur and vibrancy of Market Street. Should it be yellow or look like this – remember, it’s an idea, not yet a design.

  • Award for Spatial Innovation and Adaptive Urban Form

    Asymmetry in Balance

    SWA Group

    Team Members: Yang Zhang, Ratchu Surajaras, Sergio Lima, William Hynes, Marco Esposito

    There were multiple ideas that suggested asymmetrical approaches to the street. The jury thought that this entry most clearly demonstrated the advantages. The primary benefit of this approach is that it recognizes sunlight as a driver of public light by making more public space on the north side. That side has better solar exposure, large open northern intersections because of the street grid shift, and most of the entertainment and other land uses that could activate the additional open space due to the asymmetry.

  • Award for Place-Making and Connected Neighborhoods

    San Francisco’s Living Heart

    Multistudio, Studio-MLA, Systematica, and VibeMap

    Team Members: Luca Giaramidaro, Ben Feldmann, Federico Messa, Noah Friedman, Ian J. Colburn, Teresa Jan, Amberley Johnson, Fengxue Xia, Monica Way, Lindsey Yuen, David Koo, Qiuming Li, Sam Sklar, Kevin Aragón, Filippo Bazzoni, Gabriella Folino, Courtney Ferris

    There were multiple entries that used strategies to amplify the nodes or activity zones that already exist in some form but enhancing them in smart ways. The jury felt this entry best described a workable strategy. It imagines Market Street not  just as a place you pass through because of its excellent transit, but as the heart of the city itself. It invests in four nodes by better integrating transit and ecology, designing for flexibility, creating more places for people, and strengthening the connections of these four areas to their adjacent areas off Market Street.

  • Special Recognition: Norman Foster Prize for Innovation

    Yelamu Park on Market Street

    Sequoia: Biomimicry Education & Advocacy

    Team Member: Saadi Halil

    “I selected Market Street Reimagined (Yelamu Park on Market Street) because it proposes one simple but effective design concept that could, with development, be capable of relatively quick application. A central reservation of landscape, trees, gardens, pedestrian and bicycle routes could form a mini Las Ramblas along Market Street. It would be even better if the tree canopies touched to form a true and traditional avenue of trees (visually stronger and providing more valuable shade and absorption of CO2 to improve air quality). Along with other strategies of mixed uses (proposed by several selected entries), it has the potential to help regenerate Market Street.”

    Sir Norman Foster

Honorable Mentions

  • 49 Fellows

    The People Collective, WRNS Studio, CMG Landscape Architecture, and University of San Francisco

    Team Members: Lilian Asperin, Willett Moss, Corbett Belcher, Anouk Guilhaume, Bianca Cantos, Emily Jones, Michelle Kurniawan, Tim Jonas

  • ReCreate! Market St

    The New Urban Order, CO- , and SITELAB urban studio

    Team Members: Diana Lind, Alex Yuen, Laura Crescimano, Amy Cohen, Alice An, Alyssa Garcia, Julie Gawendo, Ashutosh Singhal, Lauren Wong, Courtney Stephen

  • Market Glow Hub

    SWA Group

    Team Member: Yuling Chen

  • A Living Canvas

    SWA Group and UC San Diego

    Team Members: Ji Hyun Yoo, Marco Sherman, Yu Ling Chen

  • The Civic Rambla

    Mediterrain Architecture

    Team Member: Anastasis Dimokas

  • Small Town San Francisco

    Team Member: Tienna Chen

  • SF Market Key: Unlocking Access, Belonging, and Joy on Market Street

    Shemya LLC

    Team Members: Carrie Burgener, Cameron Kramlich

  • San Francisco River

    MAIYA + POLTAVTSEVA

    Team Members: Vasudha Maiya, Ellina Poltavtseva

  • A gallery of all qualified and disqualified submissions can be found here.

A gallery of all qualified and disqualified submissions can be found here.