Tompkins Stairway Garden: Our History
On June 8, 2019, District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen helped us cut the ribbon on our stairway garden, now complete after a busy year of planting a hillside garden, designed by Arterra Landscape Architects, and installing stairway tiles in accordance with Andre Rothblatt’s design. The garden’s palette of perennials, succulents, shrubs, and trees, accented by a flowing ‘swoosh’ of a lawn, is thriving after the winter rains. The stairs’ multicolored zigzag design is visible from the highway. 101!
A dedicated team of neighbors devoted many volunteer hours to this effort, including fundraising, keeping implementation on track, caring for the new plants to ensure they take root and thrive, organizing workdays, and connecting with city agencies.
We thank the following partners, funders, and contractors who helped to make this project a success: Community Challenge Grants, SF Department of the Environment, SF District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, SF Public Utilities Commission, Arterra Landscape Architects, Andre Rothblatt Architecture, SF Public Works, Rock & Rose Landscapes, Daltile, North Coast Tile & Stone, Windesheim Design, LaHue & Associates, our Founders Fund donors, and all Tompkins Stairway Garden volunteers and donors.
We are grateful to everyone who played a role, and we are proud to open San Francisco’s newest public green space to the community.
After our opening, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on our efforts: San Francisco’s street purgatory: 148 miles of rejected roads the city won’t maintain.
About Tompkins Stairway Garden
Tompkins Stairway Garden – SF Chronicle
The Tompkins Stairway Garden is a vibrant community greening initiative that transforms an urban stairway into a flourishing green space. As part of the Greening Projects network, this garden represents the power of grassroots environmental action, where neighbors come together to create beauty and ecological value in unexpected places. Through careful cultivation of native plants, sustainable gardening practices, and community stewardship, the Tompkins Stairway Garden serves as both a peaceful retreat for residents and a living example of how small-scale urban interventions can make a meaningful impact on local biodiversity and community well-being. This project demonstrates that even the most overlooked urban spaces can be reimagined as thriving green sanctuaries that benefit both people and the environment.