Lawrence Halprin

Sigmund Stern
Grove
Caitlin Atkinson
2016
C-print
36 x 24 inches
1998-2005 • SAN FRANCISCO, CA
This 64-acre linear public park was developed as a free concert venue by the City of
San Francisco and the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, with a naturally
sloped meadow at one end serving as an outdoor amphitheater. In 1998, Halprin was
hired to develop a master plan for the landscape that would reinvigorate the park. The
defining characteristic of the large-scale rehabilitation is the redesigned amphitheater.
Halprin built a series of low grass terraces along the natural slope, fronted by stepped
granite retaining walls that serve as benches and also mitigate erosion on the hillside.
The venue provides seating for more than 4,000 people.
DESIGN TEAM
Andrew Sullivan (senior landscape architect)
QuarryHouse, Inc. (stonemasons)
Hamilton + Aitken (architects)
82 The Cultural Landscape Foundation
www.tclf.org 83