Project Title: Mint Plaza
Location (City, State, Country): San Francisco, CA, United States
Project Year: Built 2009, http://www.mintplazasf.org/
Firm: CMG Landscape Architecture
Firm Website: www.cmgsite.com
Project Team Members: Willett Moss, Chris Guillard, Scott Cataffa, John Bela, Eric Hanson

Project Description: The design for Mint Plaza transforms a downtown back alley into a vibrant public pedestrian plaza and festival space that not only serves adjacent buildings, but also provides needed public space for the neighborhood and local workers.  A simple but rich ground plane captures the alley way while an arbor brings a human scale to the space and provides a dramatic identity for the new landscape.  In addition, the space is populated by dramatic light fixtures, moveable seating, benches and trees, while all site storm water is captured and treated in rain gardens and ultimately returned to the ground through a large sub-grade infiltration basin.  The arbor and plaza grading subtly delineate zones of day to day use for dining areas, performance space and vehicle access, while the plaza remains a flexible open space to serve any number of events and program.

2010 EPA Smart Growth Award, Civic Spaces Award
2010 ASLA NCC Professional Awards, General Design, Merit Award
2010 EPA Smart Growth Civic Spaces Award
2010 San Francisco Beautiful – Beautification Award
2010 ASLA NCC Awards, General Design, Merit Award