As one of San Francisco’s important access points for residents and visitors to shopping destinations and transit, plans are underway to improve access to Hallidie Plaza, especially for individuals who are unable to use the stairs or escalators.
The plaza is the gateway to the Muni and BART Powell station as well as the city’s cable cars and shops on Powell Street. Public Works and the Office of Disability and Accessibility have been working on plans to improve accessibility to the plaza for everyone. The elevator has been deteriorating over the years and was decommissioned in April of last year.
City officials acknowledged the importance of accessing the plaza at a community meeting last Thursday.
“When I first came on in January of 2025, one of the longstanding access barriers that was brought to my attention and has been an issue of concern for nearly two decades has been accessibility at Hallidie Plaza with the frequently inoperable elevator,” said Eli Gelardin, the director of the Office on Disability and Accessibility.
At the meeting, Public Works staff shared the latest designs and survey results from a previous meeting on choosing a design for the accessibility improvements. These include two new ramps, seating areas, plants, and new lighting fixtures.
“We know Hallidie Plaza is the main entry to San Francisco, and we want the plaza to be a safe public space that welcomes everyone and that allows for different activities,” said Diana Alcantara, who is with Public Works’ Bureau of Landscape Architecture.
Alcantara added that planners worked on a design that could be easily cleaned and maintained with “simple and elegant materials that can live over the life cycle of the plaza.”
“The function comes first, not the amenities.”
— Walter Park, disability advocate, on the need for elevators over ramps
Current designs show the main ramp would be 8 feet wide and start above the plaza next to the stairs and just across the Powell Street cable turnaround, leading people to the center of the plaza and to a secondary ramp that would lead into the concourse of the BART and Muni Powell station. The main ramp has about 10 landings. The design option was popular among people who took a survey at a previous community meeting.
“The ramp is really getting you up to the cable car turnaround at Powell Street, and it’ll be bringing you down through a series of about three switchbacks, down into the center of the plaza,” said Tony Esterbrooks, a landscape architect with Public Works.
The project includes removing the decommissioned elevator at the plaza, with no current plans to replace it. Some critics of the plan said the elevator should come first, rather than the ramps and some of the proposed amenities.
“I think the project is upside down,” said Walter Park, a disability advocate and the city’s first director for the Mayor’s Office on Disability. Park said that while the ramps may comply with accessibility regulations, the plaza should have two working elevators.
Park added, “You have to do that first, and do the rest as dressing. The function comes first, not the amenities.”
Esterbrooks said there is currently no funding to install a new elevator, but the plan does provide space near the decommissioned elevator to install one once funding is available. He added that a new elevator should be protected from the elements and enclosed to support its longevity.
The current budget for the accessibility improvements, including the amenities, is $9 million funded from a 2024 voter-approved bond measure.
Gelardin said the Office on Disability and Accessibility will continue to advocate with the city’s capital planning team for funding of a new elevator, adding that the current project is “… guaranteeing vertical access where right now we do not have accessible vertical access at all at the plaza.”
Anastasia Haddad, the project manager with Public Works, said that they anticipate completing the design phase by January of next year, with construction starting in summer 2027 and completion by spring 2028.
