Where 20,000 cars once whizzed by every day, children are now climbing up an enormous sculpture in the shape of an orange octopus: this is the new life of San Francisco’s Great Highway, renamed Sunset Dunes Park.
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, this 3-kilometre-long strip of asphalt became the Californian city's newest urban transformation experiment in spring 2025. The project was born during the pandemic, when San Francisco multiplied initiatives to give back space to pedestrians, converting streets into outdoor social venues. But the decisive turning point came in 2024, when coastal erosion forced the permanent closure of the southern section of the Great Highway, compromising road continuity and opening the way (literally) to a new use.
Leading the transformation is an alliance between the city government and the Friends of Sunset Dunes association, which envisions an accessible, affordable and temporarily equipped park: interactive children’s games, skater areas, tactile sculptures and reclaimed wood seating. Three activity nodes dot the route, interspersed with signs indicating nearby businesses.
But enthusiasm is not unanimous. In the neighbouring neighbourhoods of Sunset and Richmond, many residents complain of increased traffic on alternative routes and the loss of a strategic thoroughfare. Some activists have even launched a collection of signatures to revoke the mandate of city councillor Joel Engardio, promoter of the park. Preliminary data indicating a moderate impact on travel times and an increase in visitors and customers for local businesses seem to be worth nothing for now.
The final design of the park, which is still in the planning stage with the California Coastal Commission, will face complex challenges such as rising sea levels and the need to ensure access for emergency vehicles. But the premises are clear: reduce asphalt and increase permeable surfaces, connecting the city to its coastal strip in a more harmonious way.
Many compare Sunset Dunes to the removal of the Embarcadero elevated highway in the 1990s, now considered one of the most forward-looking urban planning operations in contemporary San Francisco. Even then, the project's political promoter paid the price by not being re-elected. “Maybe Engardio will have the same fate,” says Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes, “but he will have left something tangible for the city.”
Opening image: Sunset Dunes Park, San Francisco, USA, 2025. Courtesy San Francisco Recreation & Parks