Built within the shell of a 1960s tilt-up warehouse, the Mission Bay Visitor Center is situated at the edge of Mission Bay, Catellus’s 300-acre San Francisco brownfield mixed-use development. Built in preparation to garner the development’s EIR certification and other entitlements, the project goal was to provide a public gallery for the display of the site’s master plan and to demonstrate the extensive public process involved in its creation. Marked by a 40-foot-tall signage tower, the warehouse lobby was extended, steel storefront and canopies added, and a new curving wall positioned to direct guests to the Visitor Center.

Here the 26-foot-high volume is treated simply, a new ochre concrete floor and sculpted white walls shaping the space, while gallery lighting illuminates the exhibits. A double-height window replacing the lower roll-up industrial door brings in natural light and is balanced by a fixed rear-projection screen. Movable MDF and perforated aluminum panels rotate to allow the space to convert from display to meeting room, where numerous community meetings and symposia now occur on a regular basis. Open to the public, the Visitor Center enables the community to learn about the master plan as it continues to evolve. Visited frequently by city residents and tourists alike, it represents an extraordinary private investment in reuse, urbanism, public information and design.