Hallidie Plaza

You are approaching Hallidie Plaza, a sunken public square that sits twenty feet below the busy intersection of Market and Powell Streets. It opened in 1973 as a grand, ambitious threshold for the city, designed by architects Lawrence Halprin, John Carl Warnecke, and Mario Ciampi to serve as a dramatic arrival point for passengers exiting the newly constructed Bay Area Rapid Transit subway station. Its landscape features tiered concrete planters, granite walls, and brick paving laid in a herringbone pattern that extends into a walkway beneath Cyril Magnin Street. While intended to provide a serene transition from the underground transit system to the vibrant city streets above, the plaza has faced decades of criticism for its isolation and design, often standing as a stark example of mid-twentieth-century urban planning that prioritized separation from the surrounding street life.