Ghirardelli Square is a landmark public square with shops and restaurants and a 5-star hotel in the Marina area of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. A portion of the area was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1982 as Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company. The square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants. Some of the original shops and restaurants still occupy the square.

History

In 1893,

Domenico Ghirardelli Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli (; February 21, 1817 – January 17, 1894) was an Italian-born chocolatier who was the founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California. Biography Early life Domenico Ghirardelli was bo ...

purchased the entire city block in order to make it into the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1960s, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company, which moved the headquarters off-site to

San Leandro San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the sout ...

and put the square up for sale. Ghirardelli Square 1

San Franciscan William M. Roth and his mother, Lurline Matson Roth, bought the land in 1962 to prevent the square from being replaced with an apartment building. The Roths hired landscape architect

Lawrence Halprin Lawrence Halprin (July 1, 1916 – October 25, 2009) was an American landscape architect, designer and teacher. Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist a ...

and the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons to convert the square and its historic brick structures to an integrated restaurant and retail complex, the first major adaptive re-use project in the United States. It opened in 1964. In 1965, Benjamin Thompson and Associates renovated the lower floor of the Clock Tower, keeping the existing architectural elements, for a Design Research store. The lower floors of the Clock Tower are now home to Ghirardelli Square's main chocolate shop. In 1981, Ghirardelli Square was bought by a partnership of Capital & Counties USA and Northwestern Mutual Life. In order to preserve Ghirardelli Square for future generations, the Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company was listed on the

in 1982. In 2008, part of the former clock tower building opened as Fairmont Heritage Place hotel. The hotel includes 53 residence-style rooms spanning four floors, and offers fractional ownership opportunities for all 53 of its hotel rooms. It is one of the few 5-star hotels in the Fisherman's Wharf area. In 2013, Ghirardelli Square was purchased by Atlanta, GA, based Jamestown L.P.

Design and legacy

The plaza is at the eastern end of the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United ...

, connecting the Embarcadero waterfront promenade to the natural parkland of the Marina Green, Crissy Field and the Presidio Parkland.HOK Design for San Francisco's Iconic Ghirardelli Square Wins ASLA Award for Historic Preservation. (2017, April 21). Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://www.hok.com/news/2017-04/hok-plan-for-san-franciscos-iconic-ghirardelli-square-wins-asla-award-for-historic-preservation/ Lawrence Halprin's idea for Ghirardelli Square was to preserve the space within the urban setting and create an example for other U.S. cities, something which hadn't been done before. Ghirardelli Square featured many rarities at the time of its creation. For instance, Halprin designed all the street furniture and light fixtures, at a time when street furniture was not as common. Furthermore, a ramp was put in for

William Wurster William Wilson Wurster (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1973) was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, best known for his residential desig ...

, who was disabled, another design choice rarity for the era. Lastly, Ghirardelli's underground garage was new: rather than having the garage connect to the road, shops were put at street level in order to promote social opportunities.Lawrence Halprin (March 2003). "Oral History Interview Transcript" (PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Charles A. Birnbaum and Tom Fox. The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Retrieved 30 April 2020. The statue in Ghirardelli's Plaza, titled “Andrea,” was installed by artist Ruth Asawa. It features a mermaid with her children. The statue was designed to create a connection from the square to the oceanside beyond as well as figuratively bring the image of women into the forefront.Parscher, J. (2018, December 3). Where Credit's Due. Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://landscapearchitecturemagazine.org/2018/11/08/where-credits-due/ One obstacle for the design was that Ghirardelli Square was at the foot of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The Pacific Heights community wanted the giant Ghirardelli sign removed because of how bright it was at night. Rather than take down the sign, Halprin had it turned around to face the waterfront. After several years, a series of renovations had departed from Lawrence Halprin's original design intention, resulting in Ghirardelli Plaza becoming visually unappealing and less accessible. Pre-2017, a revitalization project was undertaken focusing on improving public access, promoting year-round activity, improving environmental sustainability, and improving the plaza's aesthetics. The project used Lawrence Halprin’s design archives and worked with the City of San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission in order to combine Halprin's original planting and design approach with local plant species. The redesign won the Northern California ASLA Merit Award for Historic Preservation. There is some disagreement about how much Halprin's repurposed site design is originally his own. The project was initially conceived by Caree and Stuart Rose, who had pushed for retail located in reused environments, and in the 1940s, activists Jean and Karl Kortum had been arguing for the preservation of the waterfront by turning it into a combined heritage and retail center.

Architects

and

were architects of Ghirardelli Square.

Current stores on the square

* Bank of America * Compass * Broadway Coffee * Culinary Artistas * Elizabeth W. * Gameday VR * Ghirardelli Chocolate Manufact * Ghirardelli Chocolate On The Go! * Ghirardelli Chocolate Marketplace * Gigi & Rose * Gigi & Rose Children * Imperial Parking, LLC * Jackson & Polk * Lola of North Beach * Mashka Jewelry * McCormick & Kuleto's * Palette * Pico * San Francisco Brewing Company * Subpar Mini Golf + Arcade * Succulence * The Cheese School * The Pub * Unlimited Biking * Vom Fass * Wattle Creek Winery * Yap Designs

References

External links