BART 24th & Mission Plaza Modernization

Located at the southwest entrance of the 24th and Mission BART Station, the 24th & Mission Plaza is a vital cultural hub in San Francisco’s Mission District. Once known for its vibrant street life but also for issues of crime and neglect, the plaza was redesigned to restore safety, openness, and community pride. With funding and revised programming, the architecture was intentionally pared down to its essentials; creating a clean, adaptable space that supports the diverse cultural expressions of the neighborhood.

Because the site borders three city streets and two major bus corridors, design coordination required extensive collaboration between public agencies. Robin Chiang & Company, serving as a sub-consultant to URS Corporation, led the modernization effort in partnership with BART, SFDPW, SFMTA, and the San Francisco Planning Department. RCCo also participated in community workshops, guiding the design through a challenging but ultimately constructive public engagement process that revealed the neighborhood’s priorities for safety, visibility, and cultural identity.

The redesign removed dense plantings, fencing, and other barriers that once concealed illicit activity, replacing them with an open, continuous ground plane that merges the plaza with Osage Alley. Nearly all surface objects such as trees, planters, benches, and security fencing were removed to maximize transparency and circulation. A new sloped plane connects the alley and plaza seamlessly, allowing free movement and visibility across the site. Two totemic columns mark a community performance area long used informally as a stage, reinforcing the plaza’s cultural role.

At the plaza’s core, a circular stair and escalator descend into the 1970s BART station below. The redesign celebrates this geometry, using the circle as a recurring motif. The cylindrical tower enclosing the stairway acts as both a beacon and a sundial, casting colored light through its skylit portholes that shift with the seasons. In this transformation, 24th & Mission Plaza has become an open, sunlit public room for the community. It is a space of renewal that honors its past while inviting continuous activity and connection.