At the end of the nineteenth century, Geary Boulevard was flanked by the (now non-extant) Sutro Baths (circa 1896) along the Pacific Coast and Union Square (circa 1850) at the heart of downtown San Francisco. The scheme proposes the first civic intervention in over a century at midpoint along this corridor, thereby replacing a private banking parking lot.
The project is proceeded by the assumption of a block, cut away to create an urban space. The form is driven by a market typology, as two voids are extracted (both on and in the ground) to create clear open and covered zones of shared public use. Elemental slabs, walls and columns create layers of enclosure for market vendors; reinforcing the relationship between form and public space, and the interplay between inside and outside.