The Premier Open Space on Treasure Island
The 6-acre first phase of the park opened in September 2025 and connects the neighborhood with the Treasure Island Ferry Terminal, the gateway to Treasure Island from San Francisco. This southern entry point welcomes visitors with a coastal strand garden – filled with meandering paths, native coastal bluff species and furnishings salvaged from trees removed from Yerba Buena Island. The Great Lawn provides central gathering and event space and is anchored by the “Canopy of Sky”, an ethereal art installation by Ned Khan that reveals and amplifies wind, light, and sky.
“Cityside Park will be one the world’s most photographed park settings where residents and visitors will be able to picnic, play, and take in a concert, art fair or movie screening. For residents of Treasure Island, this is their front yard, and for visitors it offers unforgettable vistas of marquee attractions circling the Bay Area.”
– Chris Meany, co-CEO of TICD and Managing Partner at Wilson Meany.
Treasure Island’s signature diagonal streets are extended into the park as windrow plazas and planted with a double row of gum trees that frame views of downtown San Francisco and create a waterfront room. Over time the groves will mitigate the strong northwesterly winds coming from the Golden Gate. Each plaza embodies a different programmatic use and character, including distinctive paint patterns, seating, barbeques and picnic areas. A gracious waterfront promenade ties the park together and will eventually create a loop around the entire island.
Cityside Park is a key element to Treasure Island’s resilience and sustainability program. The park includes shoreline improvements to protect the island and its residents from future sea-level rise and the 300-foot width of the park provides ample space for future adaptation. A series of stormwater gardens are woven through south and back edges of the park and are designed to filter and remove pollutants from the adjacent neighborhood (nearly 20 acres) before it flows to the Bay. Stormwater flows from the neighborhood to a pump station that lifts the water to forebays, channels, and weirs that distribute stormwater to the gardens. The gardens are planted with native species based on seasonal wetland systems and are designed to provide pollinator and avian habitats, to create a biodiverse landscape.
Image Credit: Drew Altizer
Our goal as designers was to do less, to embrace the drama of the setting with a clear and elegant design that reveals the ever shifting, fog, light, wind, and waves that make Treasure Island so special. In other words, we didn’t want the design to get in the way. When complete the park will include a total of 24 acres set within three additional rooms that will include a diversity of activities and experiences.
