Presidio Forward Invests in a Green and Resilient Future

San Francisco, CA (March 13, 2024) – The Presidio Trust today revealed projects to accelerate long planned and urgently needed improvements to the park’s infrastructure, open spaces, and historic buildings. The projects will be completed under the banner of Presidio Forward, creating an easy way for the public to learn about key park enhancements that will be completed over the next three to five years.

Presidio Forward projects are funded through the Inflation Reduction Act support for deferred maintenance secured by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in August 2022, as well as loans, grants, and the Presidio Trust’s capital reserves. The landmark investment will result in an even more beautiful and welcoming Presidio that’s environmentally and financially resilient.

Over just a handful of years, the Trust will modernize the park’s electrical grid to ensure reliable power and support a carbon-free future; update water, sewer, and storm drainage systems; continue reforestation and habitat restoration to stay ahead of climate change; add safe and green ways to gather and get around the park; and bring more historic buildings back, bolstering the financial engine that sustains the Presidio.

“Presidio Forward projects build on three decades of park making to get the Presidio ready for tomorrow’s challenges,” says Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust. “This investment focuses on the park’s foundation. It will help us ensure the Presidio’s infrastructure, much of which dates back to the Army days, is modern, reliable, and ready to support a greener future. And it will help us deliver an even safer and more welcoming park for our visitors, residents, and tenants.”

Modernizing Utilities

Presidio Forward includes an extensive overhaul of the park’s utilities. Projects include replacing the Presidio’s 1960’s-era electrical grid with a modern, reliable 12kV system, rebuilding obsolete electrical substations, and moving power lines underground to protect them during storms. The greater electrical capacity will enable park buildings to convert from gas to electric power over time. It will also support the addition of more EV chargers to electrify the Presidio Trust’s vehicle and Presidio GO Shuttle fleet and invite residents, employees, and visitors to power up. The long-term result will be a decarbonized Presidio.

Funds will also be used to update the Presidio’s water, sewer, and storm drainage utilities, preparing the Presidio for a more unpredictable future that includes both large storm runoff and recurring droughts. In 2024, a leaky underground water line near San Francisco National Cemetery will be rerouted and replaced, conserving water and improving service to residents.

Rehabilitating History

The Presidio Trust, with general contractor Nibbi Brothers, will begin with the rehabilitation of three historic buildings on the Main Post this spring: Buildings, 2, 40, and 102. These buildings contribute to the Presidio’s designation as a National Historic Landmark District, the nation’s highest classification of historic significance. Like all rehabilitation projects in the park, Buildings 2, 40 and 102 will be updated for contemporary use while protecting their historic character—an approach known as adaptive reuse. The rehabilitation will be done in accordance with the Green Building Council’s LEED guidelines, with the goal of achieving LEED Gold ratings for all three buildings. There are currently 30 LEED rated buildings in the Presidio. Revenue from residential and commercial leasing fuels long-term financial stability for the Trust, allowing it to keep the Presidio open as a national park site for all to enjoy. See the website for more information at presidio.gov/lease-an-office.

Restoring Green Space

The Presidio is in a unique position to model how parks can respond to the loss of biodiversity and the impacts of climate change. Over 30 years, the Presidio Trust and its partners have restored more than 100 acres of native habit from Quartermaster Reach Marsh to Mountain Lake, and the rapid pace of climate change necessitates accelerating this work.

Since 2003, the Presidio Trust has replanted 53 acres with 9,000 young trees, replacing dying groves first planted by the Army more than a century ago. In the next few years, more groves will be replanted, along with a native understory that attracts and sustains park wildlife, thus increasing biodiversity. Additionally, the Trust will restore native habitats like the dunes near Baker Beach, creating conditions that may allow for the return of the California Quail, California’s State bird, to the Presidio.

Improving Transportation and Access

Extending the Presidio Tunnel Tops at the future Outpost Meadow picnic area will provide visitors with more access to open space, as well as critical environmental benefits. A 1.5-acre section of the parking lot east of Sports Basement will be transformed into a public gathering space with views toward San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge. The design allows for much of the stormwater to be absorbed during heavy rains and improve water quality in the bay and help recharge the ground water by redirecting some of the stormwater away from storm drains. In total, about 180 acres of asphalt have been converted to permeable surface in the Presidio over the past two decades. Outpost Meadow construction breaks ground in spring 2024 and will open to the public at the end of 2025.

Transportation improvements underway include sidewalk, roadway, and bike lane improvements to make it safer and more enjoyable to navigate and recreate on foot and bike. This includes repaving roadways and introducing new bike and pedestrian treatments including more accessible sidewalks. Other projects include adding more bikeshare facilities, continuing the electrification of the free Presidio GO Shuttle fleet and partnering with the SF Municipal Transit Agency to bring a new MUNI 30 terminus to the west end of Crissy Field. Much of this work will be completed by the end of 2024.

Impacts

There will be temporary impacts to roadways and landscapes as these projects get underway. The Trust is making every effort to minimize these disruptions through careful planning, with a “dig once” strategy. For further information on Presidio Forward, visit www.presidio.gov/forward.

About Presidio Forward

Presidio Forward builds on three decades of park making to prepare the Presidio for tomorrow’s challenges. Funded by a landmark investment, we’re fast-tracking long planned and urgently needed improvements to the park’s infrastructure, open spaces, and historic buildings. The result will be an even more beautiful and welcoming Presidio that’s environmentally and financially resilient for generations to come. For more information visit www.presidio.gov/forward.

About the Presidio and the Presidio Trust

The Presidio is one of America’s most visited national park sites, located within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Spanning 1,500 acres next to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio is among the most biologically diverse parks in America. Historically a home to native peoples and a military post under three flags, its facilities have been reinvented as museums, restaurants, hotels, homes, and offices. The Presidio Trust is the federal agency that stewards the Presidio, in partnership with the National Park Service and with support from the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The Trust sustains the Presidio by leasing homes and workplaces and offering visitor amenities.