Corridors

We envision friendly park corridors linking our core neighborhoods to each other and Balboa Park. The corridors we've chosen are only a starting point based on common sense factors like existing road width, historic streetcar development patterns, and connections to today's commercial districts. Remember, these are meant to serve as starting points for ideation, so our renderings are intentionally filled with a little more flourish and filigree than might otherwise make it into a final, funded design. 

Our Spruce Street vision was designed by San Diego designer William Bennett in early 2026 and we're incredibly grateful for his patience, insight, and solid workmanship and willingness to walk and bike these streets and Balboa Park over and over as we considered the architecture and how residents of this neighborhood and visitors use and enjoy the neighborhood.

These are the corridor conditions today. Spruce is 50' wide, with plenty of space for parking and travel after the addition of a broad linear park on the north side of the street.

The corridor is broad enough to support many different uses based on community input and creativity.

The Spruce Street plaza is meant to be a work of architectural beauty setting the visual tone of the corridor. It is also meant to serve as a community hub where neighbors and visitors can gather for leisure, events, markets, and other programming. Careful, intentional curation of businesses and activities will ensure that the plaza serves the community with useful goods and services that would otherwise require a trip to another neighborhood. The plaza will also include residential to provide good housing opportunities, eyes on the street neighbors, and the gentle density to support the 5th Ave Main Street business corridor.

A beautiful plaza should mark the cultural and commercial center of Bankers Hill.

The Spruce Street linear park was envisioned to capture today's residents and their needs. Bankers Hill has a larger share of mid- to late-career professionals, empty-nesters, and retirees than other neighborhoods like South Park and North Park, so its leisure and recreation needs focus less on play equipment and large spaces for organized sports and more on pleasant places to walk, sit with friends or associates, and exercise.

Expanded sidewalks provide pleasant spaces for leisure and ample room to comfortably share space with many different types of use to suit Bankers Hill's residents and visitors as it grows.

The Balboa Park connection also has the potential to calm 6th along the neighborhood's dense residential edge and make the passage from the neighborhood into the park less perilous and more pleasant.

As we envision and ideate on corridors, we'll add them the site.

• Hillcrest: Park Boulevard - Upas to University

• North Park: Upas Street - 28th to 30th & 30th from University to Upas

• North Park: Texas Street - Upas to University

• South Park: Beech Street - 28th to Fern

• South Park: Grape Street - 28th to Fern

• South Park: Juniper Street - 28th Street Canyon Connector to Fern

• Golden Hill: 28th Street - Broadway to Russ Boulevard

• Golden Hill: 25th Street - Broadway to Golden Hill Drive

• Golden Hill: Broadway - 25th Street to 30th Street

• Downtown to Hillcrest: 6th Avenue - Ash to Robinson

• Downtown: Park Boulevard - E Street to Presidents Way

• Downtown: Beech Street - India Street to Sixth Avenue

• Downtown:  Grape Street - Sixth Avenue to India Street

• Downtown: India Street - Beech to Grape
  
  

Inspo shot: Fernwood Avenue in Lynwood, CA (Los Angeles) designed by SWA Group.