Tunnel Vision

A new park is helping San Francisco denizens reconnect with their most scenic outdoor space.

- YASMIN GAGNE AND ELISSAVETA BRANDON

The Presidio Tunnel Tops, opening to the public on July 17, caps more than 25 years of transformation at the Presidio, a 1,500-acre national park set on a former military base. Since the mid-'90s, the land (which includes the Crissy Field recreation area) has been transformed, with barracks and airstrips giving way to restored wetlands and a trail network. But the Presidio and the waterfront at Crissy Field were still separated by a Depression-era elevated highway. When that thoroughfare was replaced with a new one featuring a set of ground-level tunnels, the area's stewards sought to turn the space atop the tunnels into a 14-acre park. James Corner Field Operations, the firm behind New York's High Line, used input from 10,000 area residents to design a place that celebrates the Bay Area and its history while serving as a gathering space. Take a tour of the park's innovative design:

Hearth of the Community