A Reimagined Harvey Milk Plaza - Community-based criteria for a Successful Design
By Neighborland — Solutions for Public Engagement
San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Plaza, at the heart of the Castro District, is sacred ground for LGBT civil rights history. In 2017, the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza [FHMP] launched an international design competition for idea around a reimagined Harvey Milk Plaza. Previously on Neighborland, FHMP reached out for feedback on the three teams selected by jurors to be finalists in the competition. You, the public, overwhelmingly preferred the vision offered by the team led by Perkins Eastman, of San Francisco – and FHMP agreed!The winning idea by Perkins Eastman generated a lot of positive energy and provided FHMP and Perkins Eastman guidance and direction on the path to reimagine the space. In an effort to gather more feedback, FHMP and Perkins Eastman created a design process during which the community has participated in a series of community meetings to drive the process forward. This expanded conversation has provided FHMP and Perkins Eastman the opportunity to interface with the community in the role of the client.Three community meetings have been hosted since January 2018. At the first community meeting, the community was asked to provide feedback on the successes and limitations of the existing plaza and what was desired in a reimagined Harvey Milk Plaza. Analyzing this feedback revealed four cohesive, overarching community-based criteria (shown below) for a successful reimagined Harvey Milk Plaza, and eventually, led to the development of the four distinctly different approaches to a reimagined plaza.Now, we need your help. You are invited to watch the short video presentations for each of the four design approaches for the plaza, and then respond to a short survey. If you wish to join the conversation about specific elements of the designs, you can do a deeper dive and "pin" your comments on the images themselves, so that others can view your thoughts and respond. Think of this as a conversation about the ideas shown and we would love for you to participate!
