A CONNECTING VISION

Creating the Painter Presidio Parkway in San Francisco

San Francisco
A place blessed with natural beauty
And one man who wanted to enhance this beauty
And make it accessible to all

KRISTINA HOOPER WOOLSEY

 Michael Painter’s purity of
vision gave the San Francisco
community a reason to come
together and be the best
it could be in replacing the
seismically challenged, ugly
and crumbling Doyle Drive
entrance to the city from the
North. Connecting the Palace of Fine Arts and the Golden Gate Bridge,
reconnecting the Presidio Parade Grounds and Crissy Field — the
Presidio Parkway now unites these major design elements, with the
grace of each.
This is a story of one man who ignited the imaginations and ambitions
of an entire city, who created a vision that was realized because it was
true and timeless, because it was the right thing. Guided by Michael’s
incredible talent, humility and perseverance the city has created a
beautiful Parkway — not a freeway, not a road, not a by-pass —that
lets everyone who drives over engage million dollar views and everyone
who walks nearby feel a connection between the land and the sea that
had been severed for decades.
This is not the story of power plays or commercial deceits or city
politics. It is the story of how a landscape architect’s quest for beauty,
with a generous eye to the environment and the community, quietly
introduced his best ideas to a community that at first thought it was
building a new efficient safe freeway, and that soon embraced the idea
of a parkway that was a work of art, and then — with incredible focus
and coordination — built it. 1
CONTEXT
In 1906
San Francisco was torn apart by a powerful earthquake
And burned by an unstoppable fire
This landmark building, recently renovated,
The city was down and out by all reports
Is the one remaining reminder
Yet San Francisco rallied and emerged Of this incredible Exposition
It hosted the Pan Pacific Exposition in 1915
In 1937 an equally ambitious plan
In the undeveloped northwest section of the city
Developed over the earlier decade
Showing the entire world that the City
Under the wise direction of Joseph Strauss
Was alive and again vibrant
Showed itself
Bernard Maybeck
The Golden Gate Bridge
A treasured local architect
A calm red orange presence
Highlighted this Exposition
Marking the transition between the ocean and the Bay
In his Palace of Fine Arts
Connecting San Francisco with the areas North
That celebrated the power of the arts
An engineering wonder that showed just how beautiful
While bemoaning the demise of the arts in the culture
Technical genius can be

3
 In 1972 the Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Was Established
Converting the Presidio
— Since the Spanish settlement a military base —
To a public park
One that included Industrial Light and Magic
George Lucas’ contemporary contribution to the dynamism
Of the area
As well as handfuls of innovative non-profits
Committed to the social good
Crissy Field was transformed
From a contaminated airfield
To a natural estuary
By the Presidio Trust
With a sensitive design from Hargreaves Associates
With incredible contributions from local philanthropists
The public had a new place to play!
So many great visions
So many changes
San Francisco’s ingenuity had risen to the challenges
Everything was complete
The northwest corner of San Francisco
Had become a beautiful inviting area in the city
Where everyone was welcome
No longer an intimidating military base
No longer a remote area disconnected
“All” that was needed to be done
Was to replace the ugly Doyle Drive entrance
To the Golden Gate Bridge
With a new freeway
One that was safer
And seismically reinforced
Maybe one that even included some attractive landscaping
5
A straightforward task
That had been done many times before
By talented engineers

But then Michael Painter

As a member of the Exploratorium Board of Directors
Climbed to the top of the Palace of Fine Arts
VISION
To look at the Exploratorium parking lot
In a single glance
And he looked toward the Golden Gate Bridge Michael envisioned how these two incredible landmarks
— The Palace of Fine Arts and the Golden Gate Bridge —
Might be Connected

And how the Presidio could again

Be Connected to the Water
Now so accessible with Crissy Fields

He saw just how a roadway might make a contribution

Inviting even more visitors to the area
Giving them ever more dramatic views of the Bay

Providing a transition from the open space of the North

With the city streets of San Francisco

To connect the Presidio and the Bay

Not to divide them
Where others saw a freeway on-ramp
Michael saw a way to unify this incredible viewscape
7
 He saw a way to bring this complex magnificent space
That had hosted so many generations of innovation
In so many different ways

Back to a human scale endeavor

That celebrated the natural beauty of the place
Even as it supported the needs of the modern age

Michael played with the three dimensionality of the space

And delved into the technical requirements
Considering the realities underlying his idea

To envision a place of beauty

For people
As well as for functioning automobile traffic movement

Instead of going up
As most freeways do as they straddle cities
He submerged the freeways
In two significant tunnels
That let the roadways become part of the landscape

He envisioned people walking over the tops of these tunnels

Walking from the land to the sea
He provided visions of the Palace of Fine Arts
As drivers emerged from these tunnels
And views of Crissy Field as they drove next to it
9
 Then San Francisco reeled once again IMPLEMENTATION
As the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake shook things up Michael listened to all this
And reminded everyone of the ever present danger Though from a distance
As the Cypress Freeway and part of the Bay Bridge collapsed
Sitting in the back of many rooms
Activity increased to replace the Doyle Drive Freeway Not invited to the table
This long stalled freeway
Listening
Considered to need renovation since 1955
Sketching
Suddenly received a lot of attention
Considering
Imagining
Problem Solving

He wasn’t hired to do any analyses

He was focused on the landscape and its legacy
Representing the visitors not yet born

A designer passionate about the possibilities

Resolutions were released He saw so clearly
Committees were formed A man obsessed with figuring out an elegant solution
Highway engineers stood on alert To a very big expensive practical problem

Community meetings were held

Needs and wants and concerns and requirements were voiced
All contradictory, most sincere, and many passionate
11
 Then one day Michael shared his vision
He calmly waited in line in the Public Comment Section
Of a Community Meeting
He rolled out a long long long 9 foot plan
Carefully drawn
And began to explain it to everyone
Speaking as a citizen of the world
Representing no special interests
Engineers
And politicians
And bureaucrats
And construction managers
And the community
Rallied around this plan
They each generously added their creativity and talents
Bringing this audacious vision to reality

Twenty six proposals were submitted by highway engineers

Each complex and complicated and authorized

And yet when the dust settled

After all the costs
And technical issues
And environmental impacts were analyzed
One proposal remained standing

With a major assist from ARUP

— a recognized world class engineering group — Michael’s patience
Confirming Michael’s analyses Clarity
Michael’s fanciful artistic pleasing imaginative plan And perseverance were acknowledged
Became THE PLAN And the greatness of his idea
Won the day
One that not only met the technical requirements
But was also predicted to save money during construction Eventually
By enabling an innovative construction staging strategy Mostly

13

After incredible construction accomplishments
The new Parkway emerged
And others too could see what
Michael had been drawing and talking about
Bernard Maybeck would be proud
That beauty and art have been central
Again in the Bay Area
Joseph Strauss would be impressed
At another impossible technical achievement implemented
The Presidio Trust should be pleased that Crissy Field
Has spawned even more magnificent contributions

San Francisco has again benefited

From an individual’s commitment to big ideas
With the gumption to follow them through
To realities that all the world can see.

They could feel the difference

See the beauty
Understand the innovation

Even if they couldn’t explain it

Even if they didn’t understand before

So it is with genius

The extraordinary seems natural

15
Long time collaborators Kristina Woolsey and Wendy Slick are
creating a film to celebrate this incredible accomplishment of
Michael Painter and the City of San Francisco.

Kristina Woolsey has most recently served as the Project Director for
the relocation of the Exploratorium from the Palace of Fine Arts to Pier 15
on the Embarcadero. She holds a Ph.D. in cognitive science, with an emphasis
on visual spatial representation of places. She completed a Postdoctoral
Fellowship at UC Berkeley investigating the visualization of architectural
environments. She was on the faculty at UCSC, and a Visiting Faculty
member in the Architecture Department at MIT, in the Architecture Machine
Group (which is now a part of the MIT Media Lab). She was the Director
of Research at Atari, and a Distinguished Scientist at Apple, directing the
Apple Multimedia Lab. She was raised in San Francisco, graduating from
Lowell High School and Stanford University, as her father did before her.
She is currently working on one project developing professional development
materials for science teachers and another on the conservation of the coral
reefs. www.thehydro.us.

Wendy Slick is an established Bay Area film producer, director, writer,

and editor. She has produced a wide range of films over the last decades,
establishing herself as a talented and sensitive filmmaker who is effective
in multiple roles and a variety of contexts. Passion and Power — a women’s
rights film —garnered a successful run following a Lincoln Center premiere.
Her work for American Playhouse, PBS, Lucasfilm, Disney, Showtime, and
Apple has been honored with Emmy and ACE nominations. Her films have
received the “1000 Points of Light” award from the New York Film Festival
and gathered trophies and plaques from the Houston Film Festival, the
Hawaii Film Festival, and the Cine Golden Eagle Awards. She has created
film projects for the Herb Alpert Foundation, Carlos Santana’s Milagro
Foundation, Woman’s Funding Network, and The Exploratorium. She edited
Ripe for Change, one of a four part PBS series, California and the American
Dream. She recently produced A Love Poem to My Friend Ethel —a portrait
of a longtime activist in her 80’s that premiered at the 2016 Mill Valley Film
Festival.

kristinawoolsey@me.com wendy.slick@gmail.com