Press Release: Quartermaster Reach Improves Habitat and Visitor Access

San Francisco, CA (December 11, 2020) – Next week, the Presidio Trust unveils to visitors seven acres of restored tidal marshland and a new pedestrian trail near San Francisco Bay, marking a significant milestone in the 20-year revitalization of one of San Francisco’s original watersheds.

The site is known as Quartermaster Reach, named for the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps, which operated in the area when the Presidio was a military post. The project transforms a formerly paved construction site under the “Presidio Parkway” approach to the Golden Gate Bridge into a beautiful new wetland ecosystem. Creeks now flow above ground along the Presidio’s largest watershed known as Tennessee Hollow to San Francisco Bay through Crissy Marsh, improving the biodiversity of the Presidio. The site will allow visitors to enjoy an intimate experience of nature just minutes from downtown.

Work at Quartermaster Reach brought an 850-foot length of stream once buried in a pipe back above ground through excavation. Box culverts were then installed beneath Mason Street at Crissy Marsh to allow the fresh water of the stream to flow into the saltwater marsh and San Francisco Bay, creating unique brackish habitat that is vital to a variety of plant and animal species.

Specially fabricated fiberglass panels installed within the culverts, and concrete and shell “reef balls” placed in the marsh channels, are part of a unique experiment to promote the resurgence of the native Olympia oyster. The team is currently planting 23,000 plants – including more than 40 different species of saltmarsh and dune plants grown in the Presidio Nursery – to create habitat attractive for the Presidio’s many migrating shorebirds and water animals like fish and crabs.

“Our planet is in the midst of an extinction crisis due to the destruction of habitat. Projects like this give us hope that we can turn the tide. We’ve turned back time more than a century to restore the natural systems of the Presidio’s shoreline. We hope the lessons we learn here will be helpful to others who are also committed to restoring Bay ecology,” says Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust.

With the addition of a pedestrian bridge and trail connector, visitors can hike from Crissy Field’s East Beach, under the Presidio Parkway, and along the Tennessee Hollow Trail all the way to the southern end of the Presidio.

“The pandemic has shown us how critical access to nature is, with the myriad of health benefits it provides for human beings – especially in an urban environment,” says Laura Joss, Superintendent of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “With the adjacent Presidio Tunnel Tops project opening in October of 2021, these new park sites will continue our work in providing a national park experience for all.”

Quartermaster Reach is a huge milestone in the 20-year effort of the Presidio Trust, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the National Park Service to restore the park’s largest watershed. Work has been completed in sections at sites including El Polin Spring, MacArthur Meadow, and Thompson Reach. Other sections will be restored in coming years.

“We are so grateful to the people who have supported the restoration of this watershed, from individual donors to Parks Conservancy members and volunteers,” says Christine Lehnertz, President & CEO of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. “This is an incredible gift to this region, and builds on the work that began in 2001 with the restoration of Crissy Field and Crissy Marsh.”

About Tennessee Hollow Watershed

The Presidio of San Francisco is the traditional territory of the Yelamu, a local tribe of Ramaytush Ohlone peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. Yelamu familes lived in the village of Petlenuc.

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed’s creek system is comprised of three tributaries that converge at MacArthur Meadow. The stream, dubbed Petlenuc Creek, then continues north in a single channel through a variety of habitats, ultimately emptying into Crissy Marsh and San Francisco Bay. For centuries, people used this creek system as a water source, beginning with the native Ohlone and later Spanish settlers. Over time, the militaries of Spain, Mexico, and the United States substantially altered where and how the creeks flow, creating dams and wells, and ultimately forced the water underground into pipes to create dry land for building.

Restoration of the Tennessee Hollow Watershed began in the late 1990s at the headwaters near the Presidio’s Inspiration Point. Major revitalization projects have included the restoration of Crissy Marsh (2001), Thompson Reach (2005/2006), El Polín Spring (2010/2011), YMCA Reach (2013/2014), Quartermaster Riparian (2014/2015), and MacArthur Meadow (2015/2017). After Quartermaster Reach (2020), the final sections to be restored are the Eastern Tributary (under Morton Field) and Central Tributary (between El Polin and MacArthur Meadow).

Project Support

Quartermaster Reach restoration is made possible through the support of the Environmental Protection Agency through the San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund, the San Francisco International Airport wetlands mitigation agreement, the National Park Service, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and the David L. Davies Fund of the Weeden Foundation. Generous members of the public have made substantial donations in other areas of the watershed through the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

About the Partnership for the Presidio

The Partnership for the Presidio works to sustain the Presidio’s natural beauty, preserve its history, maintain its funding, and create inspiring national park experiences for visitors. Two federal agencies manage the Presidio jointly: the Presidio Trust and the National Park Service, with support from their non-profit partner, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Together, the partnership has transformed one of America’s most storied military posts into the centerpiece of one of the most visited places in the national park system.

Photo by Cris Gebhardt Photography.

October 14, 2020September 16, 2022

On Display through November: This Land

Levy Art & Architecture is proud to announce our second collaboration with Natural Discourse. We are currently exhibiting the digital and paper works of David Opdyke in conjunction with the release of This Land, by award-winning author Lawrence Weschler and David Opdyke.

We especially love the way this looks at dusk, but come by any time of day to check it out!

This inverted galley experience begins by asking what happens when we turn the gallery inside out? What happens when private spaces – art spaces – are unavailable and how can we present art to the community at large without constraint of time or entry?

The art and gallery is now visible from the street where anyone can view it, 24 hours a day, until the end of the show in November outside of our building 2501 Bryant Street, San Francisco (get directions).

About THIS LAND

David Opdyke’s massive collage This Land presents a slow-burning satire of the American Dream as it blunders into the reality of climate change.

This Land is an epic mural fashioned by New York artist David Opdyke out of vintage American postcards which he then treated with disconcerting painted interventions. What at first reads as a panoramic birdʼs-eye view of an idyllic alpine valley reveals itself, upon closer examination, to be an array of connected scenes and vignettes. Across more than five hundred postcards, each one portraying a distinct slice of idealized Americana (town squares, mountain highways, main streets and county seats), Opdykeʼs acerbic, emotionally jarring alterations gradually become evident.

Much thanks to Gene Grealish for support of this installation.

Natural Discourse is an ongoing series of symposia, publications and site-specific art installations that explore the connections between art, culture, science and site. It is curated by Shirley Alexandra Watts.

September 22, 2020June 11, 2025

Opening: Natural Discourse presents David Opdyke @ Levy Art + Architecture

Levy Art & Architecture is proud to announce our second collaboration with Natural Discourse. We will be exhibiting the digital and paper works of David Opdyke in conjunction with the release of This Land, by award-winning author Lawrence Weschler and David Opdyke.

We will hold an outdoor gathering to celebrate this work with David Opdyke, and to bemoan its implications on Saturday October 3, 2020 from roughly 3-7pm outside of our building 2501 Bryant Street, San Francisco.

Will you be attending the outdoor reception?

Yes, I Will Attend

The art and gallery will be visible from the street where anyone can view it, 24 hours a day, from the 3^rd until the end of the show in November.

About THIS LAND

David Opdyke’s massive collage This Land presents a slow-burning satire of the American Dream as it blunders into the reality of climate change.

December 4, 2019September 16, 2022

Levy Art & Architecture’s “Noe Valley Craftsman” featured in Spaces Magazine Winter / Spring 2020

A NOE VALLEY CRAFTSMAN GOES BACK TO NATURE

by LAURA MAUK, PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE FLETCHER for Spaces Magazine

A SAN FRANCISCO DESIGN DUO MODERNIZED A TRADITIONAL CRAFTSMAN HOME BY OPENING IT TO THE OUTDOORS.

“THERE’S A SENSE OF WANTING to bring back the elemental, the wild,” says designer Kevin Hackett, whose firm Síol Studios recently joined forces with architect Ross Levy to transform a modest bungalow on a down-sloping lot in San Francisco’s Noe Valley into a light-filled three-story home that’s woven into its valley landscape. “I think we crave nature more than ever because we’re not connecting to it as much,” Hackett says. From a curb perspective, there’s no indication that Hackett and Levy’s design facilitates a connection to nature. Its gray-painted Craftsman-style facade, just like those around it, references the city’s architectural past, when punched windows, low ceilings, opaque walls, and small rooms represented the idea of home. “It’s the old fabric, which city planning authorities demand we keep because they feel it maintains the general charm and character of San Francisco,” Levy says. The architect and modernist at heart did what many city architects do and created openness and airiness in the rear and the interior of the house, while leaving its traditional-style street presentation. “It’s hidden architecture,” Levy says. The two residents, who work in technology and community arts and organization, pass through the entry and traverse a steel-grate bridge into an expansive living, dining and kitchen area on the house’s top level. Levy punctuated the open-plan space — and the entire rear facade — with glass and steel that visually explodes with the sublime greenery of the valley below. “You begin with a Craftsman aesthetic, but then step over the threshold and kind of float on that bridge and it’s almost like you’ve walked into a treehouse,” Hackett says. “The bridge lets you know you’re entering new territory and sets up the experience for the rest of the home.” Levy also designed a suspended walnut-and-steel staircase with a slim silhouette that accentuates the airiness of the beamed living space and leads to a new rooftop deck Hackett designed. The light feel of the staircase marks your ascension to the highest point of the home, where a concrete fire pit and bluestone pavers offset built-in redwood benches and a red cedar hot tub. It’s a space above the treetops that’s abuzz with the sounds and sights of the city.

Back to Nature: Spaces Magazine Spread Featuring Levy Art & Architecture

Inspired by the ways the architecture integrates with the terrain, Hackett appointed the interior with natural materials and finishes. Gauze-like sheers dress the steel-framed windows in the kitchen-dining-and-living area, mitigating the sunlight that washes over the space’s lime plaster wall.

“The plaster almost sucks in that light, accentuating and reflecting it,” Hackett says. “Everything is pared down so the focus is on the poetics of the sunlight.” The designer employed walnut flooring that lends still more warmth and texture and pays homage to the tree trunks that populate the valley. The kitchen island, too, is crafted with walnut as well as blackened steel. “It’s as if the walnut comes up and out of the floor,” Hackett says. “And the steel will wear beautifully and exhibit a nice patina.” A brilliant and massive painting by Jet Martinez that depicts riotous florals marks the kitchen area, making it appear more like a gallery corner than a functional space.

As you move to the lower floors, where Levy situated the bedrooms and bathrooms, there’s a quieter sense of being anchored. Hackett and Levy devised a shifting materiality for the staircases to enhance the sensation of moving from high to low: the airy steel-and-walnut up to the roof, walnut and walnut-and-concrete staircases from the living room down to the bedrooms; solid cast-concrete stairs to the ground level.

The bathroom design adds more sensory impressions. A lime plaster wall in the second-level master bath provides yet another canvas for sunlight play, and in the ground-level bath, a plant wall within a light well presses up against a partially etched glass floor-to-ceiling window, creating the feeling of being outdoors.

“The way you’re drenched in greenery and sunlight is remarkable,” Hackett says. Levy agrees: “It’s rare in San Francisco to be able to experience the outdoors while you shower,” the architect says.

Hackett covered the ground-level bath’s shower walls in idiosyncratically textured clay tile that harnesses glittering sunlight and bounces it around in a beautiful way. “The clay has amazing subtleties,” the designer says. “This shower is an experience that slows down mind-and-body space, offering an opportunity for true pause.”

The entire home “has a natural vibe so you almost forget you’re in San Francisco,” Levy says. “When you stare out the back of the house, you’re not looking at the downtown skyline or the Golden Gate Bridge. You’re looking at the valley and it’s this peaceful, beautiful thing.”

It’s a mood Hackett deliberately sought to cultivate, given how technology and constant scrolling impose a staccato rhythm to modern life. “Pinterest and Instagram can be a dangerous vacuum of style,” says the designer, who specifically avoids letting clients describe the way they want spaces to look and instead asks them to identify the way they want to feel and live in each area of their home. “I don’t want to talk about aesthetics,” he says. “I want to know what kind of sensory experiences they’re after.” Hackett finds that during these conversations, a desire to connect with nature emerges practically every time. “Our bodies and minds are attuned to natural systems,” he says. “Before we leap into the science behind this thing or the other, we need a firm grasp on our humanity.”

More images may be found on the project page.

October 15, 2015September 16, 2022

Imaginary Beings – by Jane R. Willson

IMAGINARY BEINGS PAINTINGS – IN PIXELS AND WOOD // WOODCUT AND DIGITAL MEDIA BY JANE R WILLSON

OPENING – FEBRUARY 19,2015 6-9PM 1286 SANCHEZ STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA

In this series, Jane Willson explores the realms of the unreal through a mix of woodcarvings and digital paintings, inspired by myth, folk and fairy tales, and her own imagined narratives. Using these elements, she paints a parallel universe of imagined beings, beasts and lands, replete with handy maps that lead to nowhere, suggesting that reality is relative.

June 23, 2015February 23, 2022

“De Haro” featured in The Looker Magazine

HOME DESIGN: SUMMER 2015

AERIE

BRINGING THE PARTY HOME

A POTRERO HILL RELIC GETS A MAKEOVER IN NEON AND GLITTER.

Words by LAUREN MURROW

IN THE KITCHEN OF Heather Forbes and Steve Sacks’s Potrero Hill home, color-changing LEDs trim the counters and a disco ball twirls overhead. A new Dutch-inspired electric hoist on the front of the house is capable of raising 880 pounds— “a lot of beer and party supplies,” jokes their architect, as well as groceries and laundry. Traditional barstools have been swapped out for custom wooden swings. “We discovered swings like these in a bar in Tulum 15 years ago,” remembers Forbes, “and we never really forgot about it.” Their kids—Cameron, 11, and Jasmine, 9—eat breakfast at the counter every morning, gliding to and fro between bites.

Clearly, this is a house that was built to party. That comes as no surprise to those who know the couple: he a former DJ and bar owner and she a print-loving interior designer. “We wanted a home with a sense of humor,” says Forbes, founder of Sayde Mark Designs. And from the original glitter art to the octopus-print wallpaper, self-serious it’s not.

Built in 1903 and bought in 2001, the original house was dark and closed off, with no view to speak of. So the couple enlisted Ross Levy of Levy Art & Architecture to blow the roof off, topping their abode with a new third floor and tacking on a trio of terraces. The living room adjoins the grill-equipped roof deck through sliding glass doors. In the bathroom, a pair of outward-facing French doors create the effect of an indoor-outdoor shower, where one can enjoy views of Sutro Tower while they shampoo.

As a finishing touch, the family christened their new home with a fresh coat of accent paint: lemon yellow in front, hot pink in back—which is visible from the peak of Bernal Heights Park. “People either love the paint job or they say nothing,” laughs Forbes. “But who cares? We think it’s fun.”

IMAGE CAPTIONS

Owner Steve Sacks and his kids, Jasmine and Cameron, in their kitchen. Architect Ross Levy wrapped the living and dining area in a wave of French oak.
The custom stairwell is flooded with light by an east-facing window.
The family gravitates toward neon hues. “This is one of those houses that’s a true expression of the people living in it,” says Levy.
Levy designed a trio of decks in back. “Every floor has an outdoor element,” he says.
Even in a house surrounded by stunning views, this windowless halfbathroom is a main attraction. “I looked through hundreds of wallpaper swatches,” says owner Heather Forbes. “But as soon as I saw this, I was sold.”
The east-facing office connects to the open kitchen.
“We used to cram dinner parties around a 4-person table,” says Forbes. This one, from HD Buttercup, seats 14.

View the original magazine spread. View the original in plaintext.