PROJECT OVERVIEW:
LAKE MERCED WEST

Lake Merced West, a 9.5-acre parcel on John Muir Drive along the southwest shore of Lake Merced (former Pacific Rod & Gun Club site), is owned by SFPUC and managed by SF Recreation & Parks and was recently the subject of a public Request for Proposals. WWR sees the Lake Merced West site as both a foothold and a billboard for restoring the entire Lake Merced watershed.

The Opportunity

Project Partners

Lead Architect: Red Dot Studio

Landscape Architecture: SCAPE

Water Engineer: Aquastry

Civil: Sherwood Design Engineers

Legal: Water Power Law Group PC

Funding

Westside Water Resources plans to develop the full site, then give the capital improvements back to the City, with the asset managed by a citizen-run special district. Direct philanthropic contributions toward program-specific facilities, social-impact lending, and federal grants form the first layer of the development funding stack.

Funding

  • A swimmable Lake Merced removed from the state/federal impaired water bodies list

  • A living lake with restored flow-through to the ocean and rehabilitated native species

  • A public recreation and education campus at Lake Merced West, owned by the City and run for the public

  • A regional model for urban watershed stewardship

Proposed Improvements

(Concept design and Coalition building stage)

The heart of our proposal lives in four words: Recreate, Educate, Research, and Restore.

Recreate:

  • Aquatics Center & Boathouse: A world-class aquatic athletics center and boathouse building on the recreation the lake already hosts: rowing and dragon boats.

  • Beach Volleyball Courts

  • Shoreline Café: A lakeside café with a cantilevered deck over the water—hosting food, beverage, and coffee concessions.

Educate:

  • Center for Hydrological Thinking: Facilities for science and art centered on hydrology, with a proposed SFPUC presence explaining the SFPUC water system from the Hetch Hetchy highlands to the Westside Basin Aquifer.

  • Living Laboratory: A Lake Merced Center for the Arts and Sciences, with hands-on programs for SFUSD, City College, and SF State students.

Research & Restore:

  • Water Quality: Reduce phosphorus and nitrogen loading from the immediate shoreline with new wetland treatment cells, and restore the lake's chemistry so it can be delisted as an impaired water body.

  • Watershed & Flow-Through: Raise the Westside Basin Aquifer so the lake once again overflows to the ocean in wet years, ending its status as a terminal water body, working with the planned rehabilitation of the historic Lake Merced portal, overflow, and drainage tunnel to the ocean outfall.

  • Native Species: Reintroduce native fish and aquatic species lost from Lake Merced, while protecting existing sensitive species, both fana and floar.

  • Vista Grande Trail: Incorporate a public trail into the Vista Grande Canal Drainage Improvement Project and connect that trail to proposed nature trails on the site—one long learning experience.

  • Green John Muir Drive: Rebuild the quarter-mile-plus roadway fronting the site as a model green street (traffic calming—rain gardens, bioswales, street trees, and a multi-use path). Utility trenching for the site will already puncture the roadway, so putting it back together ‘green’ is the natural sequence.