Embarcadero Plaza

Justin Herman Plaza
Threatened

Embarcadero Plaza

Site overview

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. 

Embarcadero Plaza

Site overview

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. 

Embarcadero Plaza

Site overview

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. 

Embarcadero Plaza

Site overview

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. 

Embarcadero Plaza

Site overview

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. 

Embarcadero Plaza

Site overview

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. 

Primary classification

Neighborhoods & Urbanism (URB)

Secondary classification

Landscape (LND)

Terms of protection

July 2025: The site is currently under threat. The Docomomo US/Northern California chapter has been advocating for its preservation. Read more here.  

How to Visit

Open to the public

Location

Market St & Steuart St
San Francisco, CA

Designer(s)

Other designers

Mario J. Ciampi

Related Sites

Completion

1972

Original Brief

This large, open brick plaza is the terminus of Market Street, the main commercial corridor in downtown San Francisco, which was originally built in 1847. After studies in the 1960s for the Market Street Redevelopment Project, a series of improvements were implemented along the three-mile-long street in the 1970s and 1980s designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin with architects John Carl Warnecke and Mario J. Ciampi. The area is now recognized as the Market Street Cultural Landscape District. As described by The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “Halprin envisioned the street as a pedestrian-oriented series of linked open spaces connected by consistent paving, graphics, street furniture and plantings. To choreograph the movement along the street he used Motation—his method for scoring how perception of environment changes depending on the speed and motion of the observer.” Halprin designed three major plazas along Market Street—U.N. Plaza near the Civic Center, Hallidie Plaza, and Embarcadero Plaza.

Located adjacent to John Portman’s massive Embarcadero Center, Embarcadero Plaza features a forty-foot-tall Brutalist concrete fountain designed by the eccentric sculptor Armand Vaillancourt to fit within the arc of the off-ramps of the old double-decker Embarcadero Freeway (which was demolished after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake). An article from the time described the fountain thusly: “Wheezing vehicles on the freeway seem to weave through the concrete sculpture giving it a kinetic urban essence and, at the same time, embracing and adding dimension to the freeway.”

The plaza is also famous among the skateboarding community, which refers to the site as EMB; it is featured in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game.Several alterations to the plaza have included the removal of a pavilion and a number of concrete steps—likely removed to deter skateboarding. The plaza is unprogrammed and used as a flexible space for gathering, outdoor street markets, and events.