By Jon Bechtol
Students from Out of Site Center for the Arts are designing a “parklet”—which converts a parking space into a mini-park—to be built in front of Mama Art Cafe next year.
Mama Art Cafe, located at 4754 Mission St., has worked in conjunction with Out of Site and the Excelsior Action Group towards putting in a parklet since July. Construction should begin by early 2012.
Out of Site Program Director Raffaella Falchi said the final design will be completed by Dec. 10.
“The biggest obstacle has been incorporating all the different ideas and feedback from all the students in the class, the owner of the cafe and members of the community into the design,” Falchi said.
For the students, the best part of the project has been “designing and building a project that will be available for the public,” Falchi said. “They are working to address real design issues, like how to promote community engagement in their design and how to discourage tagging and littering.”
Construction of the project will cost around $7,000 to $8,000. Funding has been set aside from a beautification program announced by Mayor Ed Lee’s office to give storefronts in the Excelsior a “facelift” and construct the parklet. Funds from the beautification program must be spent by March 31, 2012, meaning the building process will be completed by late April at the latest, barring any unforeseen obstacles with the permit and funds.
The Excelsior Action Group has submitted a place holder design to the city and has received a commitment from the city for the permit, which will remain on hold until the design is complete. By the end of this year, all necessary parts should be a step closer towards establishing the parklet.
On Ocean Avenue, Fog Lifter Cafe owner Jawad Swirky would like to work with the city to build a parklet on Ashton Avenue, with the idea that it would be protected from Ocean Avenue’s notorious wind.
His idea for the design includes four benches, which would provide nice outdoor seating. Mr. Swirky made inquiries to turn this idea into a reality and is hopeful a parklet will come together in the near future.
The first San Francisco parklet came about in 2005 as an experiment. Since then, they have generated much support in the city resulting in a booming of parklet proposals to the Pavement to Parks program and the idea that these parklets may become more permanent than temporary.
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