Fillmore Turk Mini Park is an existing small urban park in downtown San Francisco owned and managed by the San Francisco Rec & Parks Department since 1978 adjacent to a decommissioned Muni Sub-Station.   

Through a community-driven design process, TS Studio developed a park design vision based on the needs of existing users of the park in the community. The redesign proposes a variety of seating, gardens, and a renewed accessible performance stage, while maintaining the existing framework of the park, including a sunny event lawn and historic site walls. The proposed redesign includes a permeable plaza to alleviate site drainage problems and to recharge the groundwater at the bottom of San Francisco’s watershed where the historical Hayes Creek used to ephemerally flow in wet weather. 

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​Fillmore Turk Mini Park sits adjacent the historical muni-substation - one of largest substations in San Francisco that fed power to streetcars in the western half of the City until 1978 when it was declared a landmark.  The beautiful building with an uplifting historical spirit has been sitting vacant for years, with the hopes from the neighborhood to be converted into a community center in the future. 

Inspired by the adjacent landmark, site and the Fillmore community, a series of precast Elliptical Tourqued Planters intend to harness and to honor energetic history and engaging attitude. The spatial orientation of three ellipses in plan and space engages the street, unites the surfaces, and bounces off each other to create spaces for socializing, respite, performing, and planting. The long gentle sloping backs subtlety suggest the directions and forming of the activities. As the sunlight traces the top of the sloped planter throughout the days and seasons, it symbolizes the ever-forward & upward spirits and desires within the community.

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In 2016 Fillmore Turk Mini-Park was awarded the SF Recreation and Parks Community Opportunity Fund grant, and construction started in the winter of 2022 and is expected to be completed in fall 2023.

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Project updates are posted on the Rec Park Fillmore Turk Park project page