Jackson Approved
Last month the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission approved designs for a new playground, sports viewing areas, community learning gardens and an outdoor ball court at Jackson Park. The $40 million renovation of the 4.4-acre Potrero Hill commons also includes creation of a dog run; moving the clubhouse from the park’s southeast corner to mid-block along Carolina Street, expanding the building by 4,700 square feet, renovating the kitchen, restrooms, and stage; and repositioning the overlapping ballfields to allow simultaneous games. Construction is expected to begin mid-2026, completion by 2028. The project is a private-public partnership between San Francisco Rec and Park and Friends of Jackson Park.
Arts Close
The McEvoy Foundation for the Arts will permanently close this summer. “Although we will no longer have the physical space for curated shows, the art collection will remain with the McEvoy family and works from it will travel, as before, to select exhibitions,” the McEvoy family said in a statement. Founded by Chronicle Books publisher and arts philanthropist Nion McEvoy, the arts organization opened its 5,000-square-foot gallery space in 2017 as part of the Minnesota Street Project’s contemporary art campus in Dogpatch, mounting exhibitions that utilized artwork from the McEvoy Family Collection. McEvoy began primarily as a photography collector and eventually expanded to painting, video, installation and sculpture. His late mother, Nan Tucker McEvoy, granddaughter of San Francisco Chronicle co-founder M.H. de Young and Chronicle publisher from the 1980s to 1990s, was also a noted collector of such artists as Alex Katz, Diane Arbus, and Nan Goldin. A future tenant for the gallery hasn’t yet been determined.
No Guns
Every day, somewhere in the United States, a child finds a gun, generally in their home, resulting in death or injury. “If a little child picks up a gun, the strongest digit they have on their hand is the thumb and so when they want to make that trigger work it’s facing them and that’s the only way they can pull the trigger,” said Ruth Borenstein, of Brady, at last month’s St. Teresa’s Gun Safety Committee meeting. Borenstein pointed to a newly adopted federal law, “Safer Community Act,” which includes a mandate to securely store guns, including with a trigger lock, unloaded and in an inaccessible case with ammunition stored elsewhere. The rule emerged, in part, because when parents with a weapon were asked whether their children knew its location they’d respond, “no,” but when their kids were queried they’d often say, “it’s in the closet”.
No Delivery
A 75,000-square-foot warehouse purchased by Amazon in 2021 is being offered for lease. The Seattle-based e.commerce behemoth acquired 435 23rd Street with plans to turn it into a distribution center. The site was renovated, with a fresh coat of Amazon’s trademark blue lining the property. But the company exited the space last fall. Amazon indicates that its other facilities in the area, most notably a warehouse in Showplace Square purchased from Recology in 2020, will remain operational. As reported in the June 2021 View, Amazon has been wrangling with the San Francisco Planning Department over its proposal to develop a last-mile parcel delivery facility at the location. The planned 900 Seventh Street facility would be three stories and 650,000 square feet, according to Amazon’s Preliminary Project Application.
Music Immersion
Have you every sprawled on a sofa, or bean bag chair – yours or at a friend’s – listening to music emanating from a high-fidelity source, carried away by the communal act of tuning into tunes? Nonprofit arts organization, Envelop, offers such an experience, hosting multiple weekly sound happenings at The Midway, on Marin Street. Cofounder Roddy Lindsay has lived with his family in Dogpatch since 2015. “An entrepreneur and software developer by trade, we moved to Dogpatch because of the great community here and to be near the venue which was under construction at the time,” he said. Envelop offers live performances, immersive album listenings, sound baths, soundscapes, and educational workshops. Lend it your ear.
Women Architects
Potrero Hill resident Julie Jackson and her Dogpatch-based Jackson Liles Architecture, was profiled as part of “Architecture projects from female-led firms in the American West,” in Architect. The feature focuses on design of the Mission Kids Preschool. Jackson Liles Architecture led community workshops with the Mission Kids community to identify project priorities and worked with preschool directors to plan a spacious, bright, and functional campus under tight budget constraints. The new Mission Kids Preschool serves 80 to 100 preschool children and infants in a two-story structure with 5,700 square feet of interior space and a 2,500 square feet outdoor roof deck play area.
