COASTAL CONSERVATION ZONE

At San Francisco's southwest corner resides hundreds of acres of biodiverse and environmentally fragile critical oceanfront space. Numerous public agencies administered this park and beach in a relatively disconnected manner. MKThink, in collaboration with the San Francisco Zoo and Gardens, Recreation and Park Department, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), created a viable vision to connect the 200-acre zoo park with Ocean Beach. This vision led to the creation of a 50-acre coastal conservation zone within the joint Zoo and PUC grounds. The project was born from the previous Strategic Campus Plan that MKThink had created for the Zoo. It followed the plan's vision to create a natural sanctuary for a range of endangered and displaced northern Pacific and Arctic animals while providing seamless public access across previously inaccessible land.