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Japantown Peace Plaza Renovation Project

Background The Japantown Peace Plaza (Peace Plaza) Renovation Project is vital to the Japanese American community, Asian American and Pacific Islander community. For over 110 years, over 5 generations, San Francisco’s Japantown is one of the last three remaining Japantowns in the United States. The Peace Plaza open space has been the cultural heart of the Japantown and is a key destination site for cultural festivals and community celebrations in Northern California. It is home to culturally significant community organizations, institutions, artists, businesses, and buildings.

Note as well that in 2021, Rec and Park replaced the expansion joints located on east and west edges of plaza to protect from water intrusion. This improvement will remain throughout the future full renovation of the plaza. For more information on this completed project, please see the project page for Japantown Peace Plaza Expansion Joint Replacement .

Scope of Work

The Peace Plaza Vision Plan, video attached, is an inspiration for the future of Japantown’s central public space. An extensive community engagement process resulted in the visionary framework informing both design and future construction. The renovated plaza will have all new features: new paving (over new waterproofing), planting, informal seating, and maintain the highly used, central gathering space for cultural events. To learn more about the proposed design, please see our Civic Design Review presentation, March 20, 2023 (PDF) .

Japantown Center will remain open throughout construction. All entrances will remain open to the public. Please visit and shop local!

Funding

$25 million from the 2020 SF Health and Recovery Bond was initially allocated for this renovation and an additional $9 million in grants was added through the steadfast advocacy work of the Japantown community in partnership with RPD. Sources of the grant were $3 million from Economic Development Initiative, Community Project Funding Grant (via Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi) and $6 million from the California Natural Resources Agency (via Assemblymember Phil Ting).

The construction contract award for this project was approved by Recreation and Parks Commission on December 21, 2023 ( PDF ). This construction contract award obtained and complies with all city, state, and federal regulatory approvals, including any that are specific to this project’s funding sources.

Estimated Project Schedule

Phase

Timeline

Planning

Summer 2018

Design

Winter 2020

Construction contract awarded

December 21, 2023

Construction

Spring 2024

Open to the public

Late 2025/Early 2026

Project Updates Monthly Public Meetings, every fourth Tuesday, 5-6 p.m. Japantown Task Force (JTF), Peace Plaza Committee holds monthly public meetings. Please visit the committees page of the Japantown Task Force website for agenda, location (zoom link or in-person), meeting minutes, and any updates: https://www.japantowntaskforce.org/peace-plaza-committee

If you would like to sign-up for Project Update blog posts like the ones below, click here , scroll down to the News Flash section, and then select “RPD Park Improvements | All Project Updates” to receive updates on all our active projects, or pick-and-choose your blog subscriptions by project name. Y ou’ll receive an email that includes a link to confirm your new subscription for each blog for which you sign-up. Japantown Peace Plaza Community Vision Plan (August 2019) from Playhou.se on Vimeo .

Contact Us

Marien Coss

Project Manager Email Phone: 1-628-652-6647 More Information