Merit Award

The Barnacles at Pier 9

San Francisco, CA

Surfacedesign Inc.

Principal: Roderick Wyllie

Project Manager: Michal Kapitulnik

Client: Autodesk

Perched between the Bay and the Ocean, San Francisco is surrounded by-and in many ways defined by-its waterfront context. This waterfront has been transformed over time-from tidally-influenced mudflats formed and reformed by wind, erosion and water-to a constructed, armored-edge. This hard edge comprised of piers, docks and wharfs was also formed over time-through a deployment of a complex framework for siltation, accretion and reclamation. Once central to the vibrant shipping industry in San Francisco, the Eastern waterfront is now a collage of retail, restaurants, wholesale fish markets, tourist destinations, private docks, public piers, parking lots and open space. Inspired by the natural history of the San Francisco Bay, The Barnacles at Pier 9 looked at transforming one of these spaces-the marginal wharf between Pier 9 and 11-into a public open space that celebrates the ecology of flux at the edge of the Bay.