Heatherwick Studio creates a new concept for San Francisco’s Piers 30-32

Heatherwick Studio has created a new conceptual vision for San Francisco’s Piers 30-32, opening up this part of the Bay for the first time in over 36 years.

Dubbed The Cove, the resilient design responds to the threats posed by climate change by generating solar-powered energy, incorporating low-carbon materials, restoring coastal processes, and enhancing habitats for fish, shellfish, aquatic plants, and wildlife. The Cove will be smaller than the original pier footprint and have less bay fill.

San Francisco's The Cove

The Cove will be a contemporary destination that celebrates the classic California coast and the history of Embarcadero. A mixed-use workplace campus with a central five-acre ecological park will be included. The publicly accessible park is a natural experience reminiscent of the California coastal headlands and bluffs. A pedestrian-friendly journey through the park winds through a multi-use plaza, a rolling softscape of native terpene-laden trees and dune grasses, floating wetlands, an oval boardwalk, and moves onward to to a promontory overlooking the bay.

The idea of creating a new waterfront ecological park and community hub was developed between Earthprise, Heatherwick Studio, and a team of experienced local waterfront and biodiversity specialists.

San Francisco The Cove interior

Heatherwick Studio's The Cove

Architectural concrete as we know it today was invented in the 19th century. It reached new heights in the U.S. after World War II when mid-century modernism was in vogue, following in the footsteps of a European aesthetic that expressed structure and permanent surfaces through this exposed material. Concrete was treated as a monolithic miracle, waterproof and structurally and visually versatile.