The Mission Rock Partners development team, a collaboration of the San Francisco Giants, Tishman Speyer and the Port of San Francisco, were joined by San Francisco Mayor London Breed on April 25 to mark the grand opening of China Basin Park, the new central gathering place and regional destination in the Mission Rock neighborhood.
Designed by leading landscape architecture and urban design practice SCAPE and built by general contractor Webcor, the five-acre waterfront site anchors the Mission Rock development just across from Oracle Park. The team has carved out space in the park for a wide range of programs, creating a new public amenity that connects and integrates the new neighborhood with the city.
A generous plaza sits at the heart of China Basin Park, capturing the energy of the park, Mission Rock neighborhood and surrounding communities. The plaza’s orientation and scale have been crafted to perfectly frame McCovey Cove, the Bay Bridge and the downtown skyline in a single view. An elevated grove lit by catenary lights is an ideal area for cultural events, fitness classes, music, art fairs and other programs, while dramatic stadium seats face the beloved Willie McCovey statue and Oracle Park, reflecting the energy of the stadium and Cove on game days.
A sculpted one-acre lawn provides flexibly programmed space for play and gathering. Gradually sloping down to the water, it also creates a natural amphitheater for movie nights and other events. The sand zone lining the shoreline at China Basin Park is a stretch designed to bring visitors closer to the waterfront and provide a place for gathering, relaxation and recreation.
“It’s thrilling to see China Basin Park open at the heart of the vibrant new Mission Rock neighborhood,” said Mayor Breed. “Where there was once a surface level parking lot, we now have new homes as well as office and retail spaces, and now this jewel of a park for residents, visitors, and Giants fans to enjoy. The extraordinary transformation of Mission Rock and China Basin is also critical in our work to expand our regional transit network, connecting Muni and Caltrain to the Bay Trail’s biking and walking paths along our Central Waterfront.”
“The Port is gratified to celebrate the opening of China Basin Park, an amazing new place for the public along our spectacular waterfront,” said Port Executive Director Elaine Forbes. “We are lucky for the hard work of our partners at the Giants, Tishman Speyer, SCAPE, and Webcor. This unique, welcoming park is another jewel in the Port’s necklace of parks, with new opportunities for the public to access and enjoy the beauty of the San Francisco Bay shoreline.”
“Delivering an expanded China Basin Park to the City was a priority for us in Phase One allowing residential, office and retail tenants, visitors and our fans to reap the benefits the public space has to offer,” said San Francisco Giants President & CEO Larry Baer. “This signature park is the cornerstone of our new neighborhood and will be a major catalyst in enabling our placemaking values to come to fruition.”
“We have designed and programmed China Basin Park to embody our vision for Mission Rock as an inclusive and welcoming community,” said Tishman Speyer Managing Director Maggie Kadin. “We are thrilled to create this one-of-a-kind amenity where people can come together to connect on the waterfront.”
“The park is a place for people to gather and feel energy coming from really diverse contexts—from the ballpark on gameday, to the rhythms of daily life from the Mission Rock neighborhood, to the majesty of the bay horizon beyond to the intimacy of China Basin’s watery edge. The park responds to all of these forces,” said Kate Orff, Founding Principal of SCAPE. “We’ve designed a mosaic of destinations that are in dialogue with this context: sunny open plazas, shady lifted groves, active stadium seating, expansive community lawns, a massive immersive stormwater garden, and a beachfront ecosystem all within a modest five-acre footprint—and all supercharged by the Bay Trail that loops them altogether.”
China Basin Park employs the same sustainable approach that is carried through the entire Mission Rock development, which was certified Gold under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development program. Buffering the park’s edge along Pier 48, an 11,000-square-foot stormwater garden helps capture, store and convey runoff. Boosting the park’s overall biodiversity through water-tolerant native species, the gardens provide a space for more intimate reflection and engagement with the park’s natural systems. Innovative soil design and a climate-responsive irrigation system support the health of the native live oak and climate-adaptive island oak trees along its perimeter.
A key portion of the Bay Trail runs directly through China Basin Park, thus connecting the revived southeastern waterfront to a 350-mile network of trails and open spaces, as well as to downtown San Francisco and South of Market.
Mission Rock represents over 15 years of city planning and community input to transform a surface parking lot into an exciting new neighborhood featuring stylish rental homes, inspired parks and open spaces, community-serving retail, innovative workspaces, and parking to serve ballpark patrons and the surrounding area. Tishman Speyer, the Giants and the Port of San Francisco are joined in Mission Rock Partners by Mitsui Fudosan America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s largest real estate company, Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
The opening of China Basin Park brings the first phase of Mission Rock’s development to near completion. The Canyon, the first building to open at Mission Rock, welcomed its first residents in June 2023. Verde, a second residential tower, will open in early summer. Construction has been completed on a 13-story office tower that will serve as Visa’s Global and North American headquarters, as well as a second commercial building designed to accommodate life sciences research and development.
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Client: Mission Rock Partners (San Francisco Giants, Tishman Speyer, Port of San Francisco)
Collaborators: Min Design, Miller Company, Pine & Swallow, Pannu Larsen McCartney, BKF Engineers, Urban Design Consulting Engineers, Langan, Brookwater, PAE Engineers, Webcor