2009 Honor Award for Urban Design

Jessie Square, San Francisco, CA

Architect: Handel Architects, LLP

Jessie Square sits atop a four-level, underground parking garage on the north side of Mission Street across from Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

The plaza’s design intertwines grass, shrubs, and water to transform the eight-foot elevation difference between the Mission Street sidewalk and the Contemporary Jewish Museum into a stairs-free gradual slope.