Naples Green

Location

Naples between Geneva Ave and Rolph St
See Map

Status

Active

Date Installed

Fall 2010

Designers

CMG Landscape Architecture

Partners

Angotti & Reilly

Supporters

Yerba Buena Community Benefit District

Recreating a historical open space.

Naples Green recreates a historical open space that once framed the entry to the Crocker Amazon neighborhood. In 1915, the city built the Naples Piazza to honor the Pan Pacific Exposition. The temporary structure was torn down four years later and has since been an underutilized cement space.

Naples Green was designed to provide neighborhood beautification, new green space, traffic calming improvements and a safe and enjoyable environment for residents to host and accommodate neighborhood events and activities. The work scope included the transformation of approximately 7,500 square feet of concrete and asphalt into new green public open space. At Naples Green, landscaped areas with hundreds of new plants and 18 new trees, raised planter beds and pathways all come together to provide an inviting new open space. By removing concrete and asphalt, the Naples Green also provides storm water benefits by allowing rainwater to permeate into the ground instead of flowing into the sewer system.

To further the enhancement of the neighborhood, a mural titled ‘A Neighborhood Inspired by History and Champions’ has also being resurrected along the wall of Cordova Market on Naples and Rolph Streets. Designed and painted by Max Ehrman, the mural honors historic building images that include the piazza structure that once stood at Geneva and Naples, the old Amazon Theatre and the Pumphouse, which was home to the first electric cars in San Francisco. Local sports heroes Willie Mays and Jerry Rice flank both sides of the piazza and symbolize the larger than life influence of the SF Giants and SF 49ers. Neighborhood diversity, local sports at Crocker Amazon, and the love of our San Francisco sports teams are portrayed throughout the mural with anime representations.