Yerba Buena Gardens (Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial)

Location: San Francisco, California

Client: MGA Partners

Services: CD

Year of Completion: 1993

Area: 5.5 acres

Recognition

Rudy Bruner Award for National Urban Design Excellence, 1999
Award for Design Excellence AIA Philadelphia, 1995
Architectural Merit Award AIA Philadelphia, 1992

Locating the displays and large equipment space on the roof of the Moscone Center created quite a hydraulic, structural and acoustic challenge. The main display is a powerful twenty-foot high waterfall. Flanking the waterfall are two low-flow waterwalls fanning out along a ramp to the upper plaza. This plaza features a three hundred-foot long crescent pool with a notched weir that allows water to gently spill into the channel below. The weir design affords an attractive effect while saving a substantial amount of energy for the city.

The cornerstone of the Yerba Buena Esplanade is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial which is situated behind a majestic 50’ high by 20’ wide waterfall which cascades over Sierra granite. The memorial includes back-lit photos from the civil rights movement and twelve shimmering glass panels set in granite and inscribed with Dr. King’s inspiring words. The poems are translated into the languages of San Francisco’s thirteen international sister cities, as well as African and Arabic dialects.