Yerba Buena Garden's Children's Center
San Francisco, California

The Yerba Buena Gardens Children's Center is the final amenity to the public portions of one of San Francisco's largest public projects. Situated at the southern edge of a three city block mixed-use development of theaters, museums, parks, hotels, and cafes, the Children's Center is actually located atop the arches spanning the underground George Moscone Convention Center in the Yerba Buena Center area of downtown San Francisco. Designed in association with Adele Naude Santos & Associates, the program and buildings are the culmination of a year long process involving extensive neighboring community group forums, public workshops and user meetings, and a continuous dialogue with the owners, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

The Children's Center will include a glass enclosed carousel; the Children's Place, a 25,000 sf. cultural facility for children; a state of the art child care center; a bowling center, a restaurant; and a National Hockey League size skating rink. The buildings surround a children's garden designed for intimate and large scale activities for children of all ages.

The Children's Place includes a 200 seat theater, a 3000 sf. exhibition space, and various classrooms for teaching visual, performing, and multimedia arts. The lobby of the Children's Place is positioned to announce the entry to the entire project and is designed as a large gold-colored cone surrounded by a glass-enclosed spiral ramp culminating in an observation deck at the roof top.

The child care center will accommodate approximately 100 children and also includes a multi-purpose pavilion with independent access which can be used for community meetings and similar events. The six "homerooms" which make up the center are grouped around a landscaped courtyard, and each has a small private patio for outdoor play.

The twelve-lane bowling center was added to the project at the request of several community groups. It will be used by both teens and seniors from the surrounding neighborhood. A restaurant, located above the bowling center overlooks the gardens and the ice skating rink and has a sweeping view of the San Francisco skyline.

The ice skating center will provide a much needed regulation sized rink for the city with changing facilities and spectator seating for 500. The glass wall of the north side of the rink will allow visual connection with the gardens and will take in views of the city skyline beyond.