The design above is our award winning entry in the 2000 San Francisco Prize, a compeition to design a memorial for the late Harvey Milk.

At the simplest level, we recognized that any plaza at this location also needed to address the issue of the complex and somewhat dangerous site circulation. We proposed spanning this five way intersection of streets at the center of the vibrant Castro district with a triangular shaped, wide pedestrian bridge.

This not only highlights the triangular shape, a common symbol for the neighborhood and the large number of LGBT inhabitants, but also provides much neede, safe cross circulation, as well as a pedestrian terminus for Market Street.

In this view, the walkable glass sidewalk can be seen on the left, providing light to the meeting room below (along with the circular skylight / sidewalk lights throughout the plaza). The art wall on the bridge provides an elevated backdrop overhead.

The design provided a triangular plaza that functioned as a terminus for marches down Market Street, symbolic of Harvey Milk's interest in protesting injustices. This would be a vibrant public space with the potential to support political messages with large scale electronic media .

The rectangular panels above are large mechano-digital dispay boards for public use in conveying messages of protest. Currently rendered with large scale depictions of Harvey Milk's face, the images along the length could be programmed to display messages or preset to showcase local artists.

Underneath the plaza, a public meeting space is available, fed by the light from large scale walkable skylight sections, and available for general use, furthering the ability to have day to day discussions and forums for the exchange of ideas and help with understanding.

CREDITS

CO-DESIGNER: ellipsis a+d / Gregory L. Klosowski

CO-DESIGNER: Ignition Architecture / Veronica Hinkley Reck

Two offices collaborating with the marketing name of COIL Collaborative

UPDATED RENDERINGS and 3D MODEL: ellipsis a+d / Greg Klosowski