POPOS

I learned about POPOS—Privately Owned Public Open Spaces—on Rick Evan’s Architectural Tour in downtown San Francisco (www.architecturesf.com). A San Francisco zoning law requires that new buildings replace some of the land they take with publicly accessible open space. This might take the form of a small park, plaza, terrace, or roof garden. This is a great idea.

In practice, many of the POPOS are difficult to find, accessible only through unmarked doors or behind security guards, or available only during business hours. This makes it difficult to enjoy these mandated public spaces. The nonprofit organization San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) provides a map of the POPOS in PDF form, and in Google Maps: http://www.spur.org/blog/2011-02-03/spur-popos-guide-now-google-maps. We saw two roof gardens on Rick’s tour, including the Galleria Park Hotel and Crocker Galleria.

View Privately Owned Public Open Spaces Map in a larger map