Redesigning Harvey Milk Plaza
by Linton Stables
This article
first appeared in the May,
2000 SPUR Newsletter.
At the beginning of Market Street, the almost complete Ferry Plaza emphasizes the street's
prominence as San Francisco's main thoroughfare. The Ferry Building is a terminus, visible from
dozens of blocks away and framed by the tall buildings of downtown. The diagonal slice of Market
Street cuts through the city as the organizing reference point for half of San Francisco, dividing
everything neatly into North and South of Market. It marches in a straight, wide path through
downtown, passing Union Square and Civic Center, and then climbs gradually into the residential
district of the Castro.
Where Market crosses Castro, the grand central boulevard of San Francisco ends. Here, a tall
flagpole flying an enormous rainbow flag marks the other end of Market, a bookend to the Ferry
Building and similarly a beacon to note a place of great importance.
The flag marks Harvey Milk Plaza, which was created by the Board of Supervisors to commemorate
the life of Harvey Milk, elected supervisor from the 5th District in 1977 and assassinated in 1978.
The plaza officially incorporates the entire intersection of Market, Castro, and 17th Streets, though
most people know of the plaza only as the southern entrance to the Castro Street station of the Muni
Metro, if at all. The below-grade open space and garden includes a plaque, while above-grade the
flagpole flies the rainbow flag and an additional plaque commemorates San Francisco's lesbian and
gay elected officials.
Taken altogether, the plaza is intended to serve as a monument to the man and the movement he
embodied to empower gay men and lesbians, and also to the neighborhood so central and symbolic
to that movement. It is a neighborhood where gay men and lesbians make history daily, simply by
living openly and without apology.
Where People Meet and History is Made
To the first time visitor, to walk up out of Muni through Harvey Milk Plaza and see the rainbow flag
flying overhead is to realize for the first time that you are "in the Castro." To gay tourists from
around the world, it is a pilgrimage of sorts. It is a journey more prosaically repeated by thousands
of San Franciscans each day, on their way to work or shopping. Four different rail lines and four
bus lines travel through Harvey Milk Plaza. Sidewalks bustle with activity and conversation as
people from all over the city converge on this transportation center where downtown and crosstown
lines converge.
The commercial district extends two long blocks down Market, and two shorter blocks along
Castro. Harvey Milk Plaza, at the entrance to Muni, is the hinge between these two busy streets. As
both a neighborhood center and an international destination, the streets around Harvey Milk Plaza
are nearly always busy, whether it be for shopping or people-watching.
Protests, memorial marches, public celebrations, and the democratic process converge on and
diverge from this place. San Francisco rallies to its center on occasions of anger, joy, and sorrow. In
fact, the Harvey Milk Candlelight March started here in 1978 when thousands spontaneously
gathered and marched tearfully down Market Street to City Hall in memory of Milk, an event that
has been repeated every year since. Through the years, it has also been the beginning of AIDS
candlelight marches, the Dyke March, and innumerable voter drives, rallies, and protests.
A New Design for Harvey Milk Plaza?
In 1995, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to expand the existing plaza into a major
civic space to honor the life and contributions of Supervisor Harvey Milk. Recognizing that the
existing plaza is neither well defined nor especially distinguished as a civic space, the city and the
San Francisco Prize, a coalition of organizations including SPUR, will jointly sponsor a design
competition later this year. The purpose of the competition is to generate ideas on how to convert the
existing plaza into an exciting civic landmark that honors the history and contributions of
Supervisor Harvey Milk.
The design competition will be the third San Francisco Prize competition, and the first to address an
issue in one of the city's neighborhoods. Both previous competitions have attracted designers from
around the world. The first competition focused on the Federal Building Plaza on Golden Gate
Avenue; construction of the winning design was completed this year. Union Square was the second
subject, where construction is about eight months away. This year's prize is a partnership of the San
Francisco Art Commission, the San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW), and the San
Francisco Prize. It is being managed by a steering Committee of Mark Primeau, AIA, DPW
Director; Richard Newirth, San Francisco Art Commission Director; and Jim Chappell, SPUR
President. Members of the San Francisco Prize include:
• San Francisco Chapter, American Institute of Architects
• San Francisco Chapter, American Institute of Graphic Arts
• Northern California Chapter, American Society of Interior Designers
• Northern California Chapter, American Society of Landscape Architects
• Architectural Foundation of San Francisco
• California College of Arts and Crafts
• Northern California Industrial Design Society of America
• International Interior Design Association
• San Francisco Beautiful
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• SPUR
Major funding for the competition has been provided by Wells Fargo and the City and County of
San Francisco. Supervisors Mark Leno and Tom Ammiano are members of an advisory committee,
and Assemblywoman Carole Migden has obtained state funding for additional ongoing
improvements to Harvey Milk Plaza. San Francisco Beautiful is fiscal sponsor for the competition.
This competition will be different from earlier competitions, as it will not ask for redesigns to an
existing public space, but instead is intended to generate ideas for what Harvey Milk Plaza could be.
As the existing plaza seems confined to the Muni station, a winning proposal might suggest ideas
on how to enlarge elements of the plaza to incorporate surrounding streets and properties. Although
there is no current funding for acquisition of private property-let alone design and construction-this
design competition could give much needed impetus to the effort to create a significant public
memorial to Harvey Milk in the historic heart of San Francisco's gay and lesbian community.
The competition kick-off will be in late June during Pride Week, when entry forms will be available.
Informational meetings will be held in July and entries due August 31. For more information
contact Edgar Lopez, AIA, Project Manager at (415) 554-5757.
The Role of Neighborhood Organizations
Castro Area Planning + Action (CAPA) is a neighborhood organization devoted to developing
long-range plans for the upper Market area through extensive community involvement and
consensus-building. CAPA has been working toward the redesign of Harvey Milk Plaza as a part of
its overall effort to encourage a well-planned Castro district stretching all the way from Castro Street
to Octavia Street, the location of the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Community Center
currently under construction. Independent of the competition, CAPA is proposing several
improvements to area streets. These improvements include sidewalk widening, new street and
sidewalk lighting, additional entrances to the Muni stations at Castro and Church, street trees and
furniture, and narrower pedestrian crosswalks at intersections. CAPA has worked with other
neighborhood groups such as the Eureka Valley Promotion Association, Merchants of Upper
Market and Castro, and Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, as well as directly with
neighborhood residents, in a series of well-attended public meetings.
Using information gathered from all these sources, CAPA developed several criteria that they hope
will be included in the Harvey Milk Plaza design competition's call for entries. Their
recommendations are that the final design:
• provide a prominent visual terminus for Market Street
• define the space of the plaza
• better accommodate public uses such as people-watching, rallies, and street performance
• accommodate and facilitate the transit lines and connections
• provide for information distribution, possibly including new technologies
• enable pedestrian circulation by improving street crossings and encouraging foot traffic on the north side of Market Street
• accommodate automobile traffic
• memorialize Harvey Milk-the man as well as his messageincorporate the beginning/ending of a memorial walk down Market Street.
This may seem like a tall order for one little intersection in the city but, as Harvey Milk was fond of
saying, "You gotta give 'em hope."
Linton Stables is a SPUR Board Member and vice president of Castro Area Planning + Action.
