From the Ground on Up: Community Design with the Green Benefit District

We are pleased to share this great article about one of our favorite clients and community partners, the Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD). The GBD is doing incredible work in and around our neighborhood as the country’s first green benefit district. Last year we completed the 22nd Street Caltrain Plaza for the GBD (for project information click here). The GBD takes on neighborhood beautification projects that other organizations might not want to undertake because asking multiple agencies and entities to communicate with each other can be hard. However the GBD brings together many different municipal groups and community partners with ease and delivers visible results. Their completed project list is a testament to their ability to “get stuff done.” We are grateful for the GBD’s vision to beautify our home, the Dogpatch, and hope to work with you on many more projects in our neighborhood.

Author Lydia Lee writes about the 22nd Street Caltrain Plaza:

“To date, the GBD’s most significant project, a showcase of its organizational strength, is the redesigned entrance to Dogpatch’s grim, below-grade Caltrain station. On the west side, what was a sad little concrete plaza now has seat walls, beds of ornamental grasses, and a jazzy red railing. It seems like a modest improvement, but the nonprofit had to negotiate for nearly two years before Caltrain agreed to let it replace the plaza. Using $250,000 in community funds, the GBD hired the nationally recognized firm Fletcher Studio to design the new entrance and a large contractor specializing in public-realm work to install it.”

To read the full article visit Alta Online: https://altaonline.com/lydia-lee-green-benefit-district/