Miller Company Landscape Architects designed a landscape with stone seat-walls, a multipurpose court, a sundial integrated into the circular ramp of the existing footbridge, and native and drought-tolerant planting.
Photos Courtesy of Miller Company Landscape Architects
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Fallen Bridge Park offered an interesting possibility for healing a neighborhood eyesore. Miller Company Landscape Architects provided pro bono master planning, design, and construction administration, and also served as the landscape contractor.

Fallen Bridge Park is a small freeway easement at the corner of 18th and Utah Streets, at the eastern edge of San Francisco's Mission District. The site, adjacent to Highway 101, offers a rare bit of open space in the dense residential neighborhood, with views of the Mission District and Twin Peaks to the west. It also gives access to a footbridge crossing the highway between the Mission District and Potrero Hill neighborhoods.

The completed seat-wall and planting, with the footbridge visible in the background. The plan is posted for public information and outreach.

A volunteer organization eventually formed into the Mariposa-Utah-18th-San Bruno Neighborhood Association (MUNA). MUNA organized volunteer workdays to clean and maintain the park, and began searching for funding for renovation in 2004.

Realizing they needed professional assistance, MUNA contacted Miller Company Landscape Architects in 2007. The group chose us because of our firm's long history of working on public spaces, and our commitment to community-driven design. We were excited to work on this project because of our interest in abandoned urban spaces. Working closely with residents, the firm developed the Fallen Bridge Park Master Plan. We worked in conjunction with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and CalTrans to complete the design. The plan incorporated a seat wall/viewing terrace along the curved corner of 18th and Utah Streets, a multi-use recreational area with a paved court and a garden area with drought-tolerant and native plants and shade trees. For Phase One, Miller Company removed an existing chain-link fence, installed irrigation hook-ups, and built the stone seat wall that now serves as a viewing terrace overlooking the Mission District neighborhood. Construction equipment included hand tools and cement mixers. Neighborhood volunteers planted and mulched the new garden plants. The design of the park took several months, and construction was completed over six weeks.