STREET TREE NURSERY | SAN FRANCISCO, CA

The City and County of San Francisco Department of Public Works in collaboration with Caltrans, envisioned building a state-of-the-art tree nursery and education center on a blighted lot below a freeway interchange in the heart of San Francisco. Funding for the project was provided as part of Governor Newsom’s Clean California initiative, and the vision supports the San Francisco Climate Action Plan to plant 155,000 trees throughout San Francisco.   

UrbanBloc was hired to design and manufacture the buildings to support the tree nursery staff and to host a variety of public and private activities. Two 40’ containers were joined to form a double-wide activity space with a kitchenette and office. An additional container includes a staff breakroom and two ADA-compliant bathrooms.  We took special care with the finishes to ensure their consistency with the Department of Forestry’s mission of sustainability — interior walls finished in red birch panels, pine used for the exterior cladding, recycled tile flooring, and LED lighting. The roof of the containers supports solar panels that provide electricity for the site. The containers were finished in four months, in time for a ribbon-cutting prior to the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco.