Forging the Future of Aquatic Park & Pier
Our Mission
The Aquatic Park and Pier Project is a community-led initiative to revitalize this historic waterfront park and its surroundings, and to rebuild its protective pier so that future generations of San Franciscans and visitors can enjoy this special place.
Aquatic Park welcomes 4+ million visitors per year. The pandemic has reawakened local appreciation of this vital community park—one of the few accessible, safe places to enjoy water-based recreation and experience the city’s complex and storied relationship with the bay. All are welcome here.
Aquatic Park is in Jeopardy
The Park is hidden.
Aquatic Park is a memorable place for those walking along the waterfront but it is largely hidden from the City. Tucked behind a 1970s-era residential and commercial development, the park’s presence is not easily perceptible. Even though it is located at the terminus of Van Ness Avenue, a major thoroughfare, surface parking and sloped terrain don’t provide a clue to the civic grandeur just beyond. We think the park should be more visible to the city.
The Park is disconnected.
NPS statistics show a 75% drop in annual visitors between Aquatic Park and Fort Mason, just to the west. Aquatic Park’s western edge is a parking-lined service road that abuts a steep cliff, so many visitors don’t perceive how to continue their journey west along the city’s waterfront. The pedestrian path from Aquatic Park to Fort Mason is both hard to find and steep to navigate. We need a better connection.
The Pier is deteriorating.
Aquatic Park’s iconic pier offers a dramatic water-level promenade and it also serves as vital infrastructure that defines and protects the cove. Years of sea surge along its western edge have eroded the structure and, today, parts of it are falling into the bay. Already areas of the pier are closed to the public. We need to rebuild the pier to ensure future generations can experience the water from its mantle — whether walking, cycling, fishing, or viewing — and to preserve the shoreline park it protects.
No pier. No park.
Without a functioning pier, Aquatic Park’s treasures — its beach, historic vessels and buildings — are threatened. The pier is designed to calm the interior water while enabling the tides to wash in and out below the surface to maintain a functioning ecosystem. The pier tempers the waves of San Francisco Bay creating calm enough conditions for mooring the vessels and safe water activity. Aquatic Park is a vital place for history, for recreation, for our city’s residents and visitors alike. We’re committed to revive it.