San Francisco Urban Forestry and Sidewalk Gardens

Workers in safety vests use a jackhammer on a sidewalk near a brick building and parked cars.

Three construction workers in safety vests repair a sidewalk near a white SUV. A church and scaffolding are visible in the background.

Two construction workers wearing safety vests and masks use a power saw on a city sidewalk near parked cars and a street intersection.

A construction worker in a safety vest and helmet operates a jackhammer on a city sidewalk near parked vehicles.

Three workers wearing high-visibility vests and masks stand against a textured blue wall.

Focus

Greening the city with precision sidewalk removal

Location

San Francisco, California

Year

2024

Client Feedback

“We have a terrific working relationship with Associated Builders. They ask the right questions and help us troubleshoot surprising scenarios. They work well with the public; we trust them to represent our values when working in San Francisco’s neighborhoods. We are very pleased with the results: on-time work with no messy scar lines, no chips, no damaged utilities. Associated Builders is a joy to work with.”

Project Overview:

Transforming the urban landscape since 1981, Friends of the Urban Forest (Friends) works to plant street trees and sidewalk gardens across San Francisco’s 36 neighborhoods. Having already planted nearly 60,000 trees (half of San Francisco’s street trees) and replaced 120,000 square feet of concrete with gardens, Friends has an ambitious goal of continuing this effort by planting an additional 7,500 trees and 75,000 square feet of gardens (at least 75% native plant species) by 2026. With a strong environmental justice focus, Friends aims to expand urban greening efforts in underserved neighborhoods, reducing flood risk while increasing public health benefits, access to green space, and extreme heat resiliency for all San Franciscans. To help fulfill this mission, Friends found a trusted concrete contractor in Associated Builders who has significant experience in concrete and sidewalk work, stormwater management and working with the City and County of San Francisco.

Client Vision:

Friends tasked Associated Builders with precision cutouts of sidewalk pavement resulting in planting beds for trees and sidewalk gardens. This not only provides opportunity for urban green spaces, but also increases pervious surfaces for stormwater penetration; in so doing, rainwater is absorbed by the soil and diverted from sewers. The beds vary in size, shape and dimension, but collectively provide relief to San Francisco’s combined sewer system, which suffers from periodic combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in times of high-intensity rainfall events – made more frequent by climate change. Each tree basin and sidewalk garden cutout serves as an example of Best Management Practice (BMP) in stormwater management and requires the ability to work with a multitude of under-sidewalk unknowns.

Key Takeaways:

1. Precision Cutting: For sidewalk gardens, each concrete cutout site is unique — to maximize the amount of pervious soil groundcover, while also working around existing utilities, sewer vents and accessibility concerns. This requires an expert level of precision in saw cutting and demolition to ensure clean, smooth edges.
2. Supporting San Francisco’s Climate Resilience Journey: Climate change has resulted in increasingly intense rainfall events, necessitating the City and County of San Francisco to manage its stormwater more proactively. By working with Friends of the Urban Forest, Associated Builders is contributing towards realization of the climate resilience objectives. In addition to benefiting stormwater management, tree basins and sidewalk gardens bear numerous environmental benefits, including expanded green canopy, increased groundwater aquifer recharge and improved public health (e.g. reduced temperatures during heat waves, better air quality and increased livability).
3. More than Just Concrete Work: Sidewalk cutouts involve more than just removing concrete. As client-focused contractors, Associated Builders maintains a level of sensitivity when working in local communities as well as demonstrated experience working with a not-for-profit with an ambitious environmental and social mission. Associated Builders further maintains firsthand experience working within the not-for-profit sector and fulfills the minimum requirements when working on publicly funded contracts.