Portsmouth Square Pedestrian Bridge
While the bridge is ostensibly meant for pedestrian access to cross the road to the Chinese Culture Center, surveys show that it is rarely used as such, and it gets denigrated by some residents as a "bridge to nowhere." Nevertheless, its brutalist architectural elements and banked sides have made it an attractive space for street skateboarders, from whom it has seen continuous use since the late 1970s, and has been a mainstay in skate media. Skateboarders colloquially call it China Banks. It is also used as a public and private community space.
The bridge is currently under consideration for being demolished as part of a complete redesign of Portsmouth Square.
History
From 1959 until 1963, Portsmouth Square was redesigned as a public park for the Chinatown community. Meanwhile, the Hilton San Francisco Financial District was built across the street (initially as a Holiday Inn but was later purchase by Hilton Hotels & Resorts). A bridge connecting the two was included in some of the hotel's initial designs. The city gave approval to build the bridge in 1970. Construction on the bridge began that same year, and it was opened in 1971. The bridge was created as a privately owned public space. The air rights for the bridge are owned by Justice Investors, one of the companies that owns the Hilton Hotel property. While the bridge is private property, its permit is "revocable at the will of the Board of Supervisors."
A second redesign of the square began in a first phase the 1980s and a second phase in the 1990s. During the second phase of that redesign, a community room was built which was connected to the bridge on the underside of the east side. It was opened to the public in 2001.
A redesign of the bridge was announced in 2015, where it was stated that public access would be increased and new benches and planters would be built on the bridge. However, this plan was not realized.
Proposed demolition
In 2014, the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department conducted a feasibility study for redesigning and upgrading Portsmouth Square. Designs were drawn up, and in 2021 it was publicly announced that the bridge would be removed as part of the redesign. It was estimated that it would cost $2.1 million project to dismantle the bridge. The permit with the city states that it would be the Hilton Hotel's responsibility to remove the bridge. David Gonzalez, president of the hotel's owner Portsmouth Square Inc., said that the hotel did not want to pay to demolish the bridge.
A survey found that 77% of residents of Chinatown never use the bridge, and some people have said that the Hilton hotel sometimes treats it like a private space, rather than public, and closes it on Sundays and during private dining events. As such, many Chinatown residents support the removal of the bridge, but some people oppose it, including skateboarders and appreciators of Brutalist architecture. Sam Kwong, a local architect, also opposes the demolition as he says removing it will create bad feng shui. Meanwhile, better pedestrian access for that block is necessary as the street intersections on either side of the bridge are some of the most dangerous for pedestrians.
In January 2023, renderings of the redesign of the area without the bridge were publicly revealed. They showed a small section of the bridge connected to the hotel will remain which will continue to form a porte cochere and offer a balcony for the hotel.
If the redevelopment proceeds, the historic skate spot would be lost.