Billionaire-backed redesign of Embarcadero Plaza moves toward funding
Billionaire-backed donors are poised to cover about half the Embarcadero Plaza redesign, sharpening the fight over who shapes one of downtown’s most visible public spaces.
At the foot of Market Street, a $40 million remake of Embarcadero Plaza is turning one of San Francisco’s most visible waterfront spaces into a test of who gets to shape downtown’s future. The project sits between the Ferry Building, the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero Center, and now it is moving from concept toward funding with billionaire-backed donors expected to cover roughly half the redesign.
Mayor London Breed announced the civic partnership on Nov. 4, 2024 as part of her downtown revitalization plan. The deal brings together the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, BXP and Downtown SF Partnership. In the city’s original financing outline, BXP Embarcadero Plaza LP was expected to spend about $2.5 million on design, while the city sought more than $15 million in public money and up to $10 million in private funding. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the partnership legislation on March 4, 2025.
Rec and Park describes the project as a five-acre waterfront park, a major shift for a space that opened in 1972 and was designed by Lawrence Halprin. Sue Bierman Park was added later, after demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway in 1992. City planners say the redesign is meant to help create a more vibrant, mixed-use, 24/7 downtown neighborhood and destination, tying the plaza more tightly to the city’s broader revival effort.
In spring 2026, officials unveiled five possible designs. The April concepts would merge Embarcadero Plaza, South Embarcadero and Sue Bierman Park into a single landscape, with landscaping, stormwater features, improved pathways, new seating, picnic areas and shaded spaces. One version would replace the Vaillancourt Fountain with more green space and recreational uses. Officials say public feedback has been folded into the designs, including complaints that one concept felt too inward-looking and did not connect enough to Market Street’s wider urban fabric.
The fountain has become the sharpest fault line in the project. The city says it is structurally unsound and at risk of failure in an earthquake, and Rec and Park began disassembly under a separate emergency project in April 2026. Preservation advocates in Friends of the Plaza sued in February to block the removal, but a San Francisco judge later denied a preliminary injunction, clearing the city’s path to proceed.
Supporters see a chance to activate a hard-hit part of downtown. Critics see a donor-driven remake that could trade a civic commons for a more curated vision of revival. The next phase will decide not just how Embarcadero Plaza looks, but who San Francisco lets define public space at the center of its waterfront.
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