Fisherman's Wharf Surge Deck

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The San Francisco Seawall skirts the eastern edge of San Francisco "protecting" the Embarcadero and it's eastern tenants from tidal inundation. While the seawall was once the solution to mitigate inundation, this aging piece of infrastructure is failing in many locations and the city of San Francisco is left with the question of what will become of the bay shoreline.

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The Fisherman's Wharf Surge Deck is a speculative project that uses the popular tourist boardwalk north of Pier 35 as a testing ground to explore surgical design intervention along the seawall. The design for the Surge Deck aims to extend the existing boardwalk inland and to allow for water to infiltrate below the deck as a means to bridge the existing disconnect between land and water. Piers extend vertically above the boardwalk expressing and paying homage to the maritime vernacular that once blanketed the length of the waterfront. Voids are punched through the deck and covered with grating to allow visitors to walk over the bay and engage with the water both visually and audibly. Vertical walls extend from the bay floor up to grade to provide seating as well as act as a backsplash that redirect larger waves up to splash through the grated voids creating a geyser-like effect. The existing London Plane Tree allee that brackets the pedestrian path along The Embarcadero continue towards the bay, visibly and symbolically weaving the land and ocean into a cohesive yet dramatic landscape experience.   

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Location:    San Francisco, CA

Year Completed :   2019