Chinatown Broadway Street Design

The final report for the Chinatown Broadway Street Design Project is now available. Download here (24MB pdf).
Download the Chinatown Broadway Street  Design Final Report
 

Chinatown header

UPDATE 07/2/14: The Planning Phase of the Broadway Chinatown Design project concluded in Spring 2012. The San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW) is now preparing construction documents. For more information visit their project website by clicking here.

Open House

On July 17, 2014 the City, in partnership with the Chinatown Community Development Center, invites the public to attend a community open house to learn about project updates and review Public Art proposals for streetscape furnishings.

Thursday, July 17, 2014 from 4:00PM-6:00PM
Presentation at 4:30PM
Bayside Elderly Housing, 2nd Floor Community Room (ADA Accessible)
777 Broadway (between Stockton and Powell) [ map ]

Project Overview

The Chinatown Broadway Street Design project will develop a community-based vision to improve pedestrian conditions, and develop a design plan that is safe, gracious and lively.

The project area is located in San Francisco's Chinatown. Chinatown is the most densely populated urban area west of Manhattan, with 15,000 residents living within a 20-square block area. Chinatown's population consists of primarily low-income, elderly, and monolingual immigrants.

Broadway is currently a major four-lane arterial road. Primary land uses along Broadway include over 40 commercial merchants, large-scale housing developments including the 500-unit Ping Yuen public housing complex and Chinatown CDC's Bayside Elderly Housing building, and education facilities including Jean Parker Elementary School which serves approximately 500 K-6 grade students, and the Wu Yee Child Infant Care Center which provides low-cost day care services for children ages 0-3.

This dense mix of uses means that the area is also heavily utilized by pedestrians and by cyclists, as Broadway is the only street that provides a relatively flat route to the west side of the City. This process envisions transforming this street from an auto-centric corridor to a more vibrant multi-modal street that can be enjoyed by all users.

The Chinatown Broadway Street Design project is an interagency effort led by the San Francisco Planning Department in partnership with the Chinatown Community Development Center, the San Francisco Department of Public Works, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The project area is along Broadway from Columbus Avenue to the Broadway Tunnel. The project is funded by a grant from the Caltrans Environmental Justice: Context Sensitive Planning Program.

Download the Chinatown Broadway Street Design project area boundary map
Download the project area boundary map

Links & Background Information

The 1994 Broadway Envisioning Study outlined a vision for streetscape improvements along Broadway. In 1999, the Broadway Streetscape Improvement Plan formalized this vision through a series of community planning workshops. In collaboration with the Chinatown Community Development Center and the North Beach Chamber of Commerce, residents, merchants and other community groups outlined a vision and a plan to transform Broadway from the Embarcadero to Columbus Avenue from a highway to a destination. These recommendations have been implemented in phases as part of the Broadway Streetscape Improvement Project. The first phase, on Broadway between Montgomery and Battery Streets was completed in 2005 and the second phase on Broadway between Kearny Street and Grant Avenue was completed in 2008. A third phase, on Broadway between Montgomery and Kearny is currently under construction. Streetscape improvements include bulb-outs, sidewalk widening, curb ramp and storm drain installations, new benches and street lights, traffic and pedestrian signal lights, trees, and public art. The current planning process builds on the Broadway Streetscape Improvement Plan with a focus on pedestrian safety and activity on Broadway from Columbus Avenue to the Broadway Tunnel.

Download Materials


Workshop #1: Wednesday May 4, 2011

Workshop #2: Tuesday August 16, 2011

Workshop #3: Wednesday November 16, 2011

Final Open House: Wednesday June 6, 2012

Site Photos

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Contacts

To be added to the mailing list, and kept informed of the project's progress, please send an email to lily.langlois@sfgov.org

Lily Langlois
415-575-9083
Lead Planner 
San Francisco Planning Department
lily.langlois@sfgov.org

Click here to view Chinese translation of this page.

Nick Perry
Urban Designer
San Francisco Planning Department
415-575-9066
nicholas.perry@sfgov.org