This Saturday, the Parks Conservancy will host a celebration for the grand opening of the new Lands End Lookout visitor center.
The new visitor center – located just above Sutro Baths in a corner of the Merrie Way parking lot – features “exhibits and artifacts, interpretive merchandise, a café, restrooms, and “green” features throughout”. Also newly built is a 1,000 square foot building for restrooms (no more porta-potties!).
Saturday’s celebration kicks off at 11am with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. From 12noon until 2pm, the center will be open to visitors and there will be live music performances. Beginning at 1pm, you can join guided walks on the area’s Ohlone heritage, wildflowers, history or archeology.
The construction of the Lands End Lookout was made possible through a $5 million donation from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Goldsmith Foundation. Additional funds were provided by the National Park Service and Parks Conservancy members.
In early community meetings, the architectural firm on the project, Esherick, Homsey, Dodge & Davis (EHDD), said they envisioned the Lands End Lookout as “a touchstone for a network of places along the edge”, a starting point for visitors to begin their exploration of Lands End. And visitors don’t just mean tourists – according to a surveys conducted for the project, 80% of visitors to Lands End are local to San Francisco.
To help guide the design process, the Park Service developed five themes for the project: Lands End’s history of recreation (think Sutro Baths, Camera Obscura, rides along Merrie Way, the Cliff House and its Sky Tram), the cultural landscape (who’s been part of the history of Lands End and the archaeology that has evolved), the natural landscape, the Native American presence of the Ohlone/Costonoa tribes that visited seasonally for nearly 3,500 years, and finally, Lands End’s identity as a National Park.
EHDD summed up their design goal for the center as “a place that reflects the past, represents the present, and provides opportunities for future use of Lands End, its protection and enjoyment.”
Come out Saturday and see if they accomplished it!
Sarah B.
I learned to ice skate at Sutro’s, shared many a meal at Louis’ and the Cliff House and of course, spent countless hours at Playland. This center is a celebration of a key time and place in our history. I look forward to spending time at the new center.
I hate this building. It blocks a view of the Pacific that you used to be able to see as you headed West on Geary/Pt. Lobos toward the Great Highway. This building could have been placed somewhere else and still served its purpose. Now it’ll take away a view forever that so many of us treasured. Where were our community organizations, such as Planning Association for the Richmond, when this building was still in the planning stage?
Looks nice! Susie, there’s plenty of view, give it a rest.
The only view that is blocked is the one while driving. Sorry, I would prefer that people focus on driving rather than trying to catch a glimpse of cliffs, ruins, or the gleam of sunlight on the sea. The site still allows for ample parking and has a more limited impact on the environment of the surrounding nature than if it was butted against the trails of Lands End or Sutro Heights Park.
Additionally, this center will be able to provide info about the the rich history of this part of the city and our district. Finally, it also provides a small revenue stream through the sell of concession, trinkets, maps, etc. so that is area can hopefully forever remain public lands. Face it, funding for NPS is never a top line item for the national budget.
Go easy – some people don’t handle change well. That being said, San Francisco has always been about change. It’s what keeps us vibrant. This is a good thing. We need to be sure that the generations that follow us remember. I hate the condos that replaced Playland but it’s their time.
FYI – you DO know that the original Diving Bell tank is still capped and intact under Safeway? …and a little piece of Fun-Tier Town still exists and not just at the Cliff House.
I saw the new visitor center this week during a preview. It is awesome. I think a stop by will change most people’s tune about the view being obstructed.
I’ve watched the building go up on my way to work for the past several months. I’m not a fan of buildings that obstruct views, but in this case, it’s not a bad thing. There is plenty of view in front of and to the sides of the building. It’s “low profile” and as another poster noted, you really don’t want to encourage staring at the ocean view while steering aound the curve at the point. Plenty of view within feet of the building. All in all, it’s a good thing.
It was a great view. So was the view of the waves crashing on ocean Beach, across the vanished remnants of Playland, from the Safeway checkout lines, before they built the condos across the street. If you park down near the front of the overlook you can enjoy the same basic view, with the building at your back, and the wind in your face. (Did it this morning). Or go down to Louis’s and order the breakfast special.
Blocky as it is from a distance, up close it’s a gem of a building (if you like modern). Kudos to Esherick, Homsey, Dodge and Davis (who also designed the Monterey Bay Aquarium). From the southwest, the utility screens dominate (they might do so less if one did away with the concrete arch over the walkwaym but so be it). But from the parking lot, forecourt, and the sitting wall along old Merrie Way, the building is just about right. The statuary by the entry echoes the old crumbling statues we have come to know and love at Sutro Heights.
I too was concerned about the blockage, but if you stand at 48th & Point Lobos, it looks to me that the designers took great care in nestling the building in the corner of a small site. The view of the ocean does not seem to be greatly impeded by the building, and the architecture itself is very well done by a very seasoned firm. I also look at it as increasing local property values!