NOPA's Marta Fry Makes Top 10 in Best SF Architecture For 1st Decade of 21st Century

Flickr photo by evleensf

Flickr photo by AodhGraem

Marta Fry and her much-lauded landscape operation, Marta Fry Landscape Associates, claimed one of the top ten spots for best architecture in San Francisco during the first decade of the 21st century, according to San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic John King.* Fry's Mission Creek Park, completed in 2008, is "a surprising joy" unexpectedly found beneath freeway ramps "with such flourishes as the swale of Japanese bloodgrass snaking past athletic courts." Fry's work adds to a park space that "makes a redevelopment district start to feel like a real neighborhood." Her MFLA studio worked on much of the Mission Bay make-over, including the Master Plan, the Streetscape Plan, and the Mid-Block Mews development.** She has undertaken local, national, and international projects and has won several awards including one for Visionary Landscapes for the 21st Century.

Mission Creek Park shares honors with the deYoung Memorial Museum (2006), the restored Ferry Building (2003), and AT&T Park (2000) in the Chronicle's end-of-the-decade assessment. Others to take a closer look at include David Baker + Partners' Soma Studios & Family Apartments (2004) and the Roma Group's Pier 14 (2006).

Congratulations to all and especially to our Turk Street neighbor, Marta Fry.

* For John King's take on a bright new building in NOPA, see this previous post.

** For an earlier study and proposal for the Mission Creek Area, developed by several partner organizations including the SF Bicycle Coalition and Rails to Trails Conservancy, see Mission Creek Bikeway and Greenbelt Concept Plan.

Note: to see a fine collection of Mission Creek Park photos, visit San Francisco Photo Blog. But now, after all this introduction, get outdoors and visit Mission Creek by foot, bike, or transit!