Cayuga Park

Cayuga Park is a neighborhood park and playground in San Francisco, at the edge of the Cayuga Terrace neighborhood. Its history, location and aesthetics make it unique among the parks of San Francisco.

Cayuga Park
Cayuga Park welcome sign
LocationSan Francisco, California
Coordinates37°42′50″N 122°27′1″W
Operated bySan Francisco Recreation & Parks Department

History

In 1986, Demetrio Braceros was assigned to the 4-acre (16,000 m2) Cayuga Park, with the mission to "change the atmosphere."[1] He created and installed the landscape art present around the park.[2]

In 2009, Eric Powell was commissioned to create the Cayuga Portal steel art sculpture introduced in 2013.[3][4]

Amenities

The park features an accessible children's playground, picnic area, community rooms, bathrooms, outdoor basketball court, outdoor tennis courts, and a multipurpose turf area with a baseball field.[5]

Public art installations
Cayuga Portal in May 2023.

Cayuga Portal

The entrance gates to the park were recreated as a painted steel public art installation by Eric Powell. It was commissioned in 2009 and unveiled in 2013.[3][4]

Landscape art

The aesthetics of Cayuga Park is largely the creation of Demetrio Braceros, an employee of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Braceros worked on the park for over 20 years, transforming a barren landscape into a park that features lush vegetation, trails, "themed gardens" and, most prominently, over 375 figurines, totem poles and statues as well as several observation decks, all carved from wood by Braceros.

After emigrating from the Philippines in 1973, Braceros worked for a San Francisco law firm but soon applied for a job as a gardener at the Recreation and Park Department. In 1986, Braceros was assigned to the park with the mission to "change the atmosphere."[1]

Braceros said about the state of the park when he took it on, "there were prostitutes, drug dealers and crime. People got killed up there ... I thought to myself, how can I help this place?"[2]

Notes
  1. Jones, Carolyn (March 11, 2005), "Excelsior Gardener creates Eden at playground", San Francisco Chronicle
  2. Whittaker, Richard, Demetrio Braceros: New Trail of Hope, archived from the original on December 13, 2009, retrieved March 14, 2009
  3. "The Gates of Cayuga Playground – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World". artandarchitecture-sf.com. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  4. "August 21, 2013 | San Francisco Arts Commission". sfgov.org. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  5. "Cayuga Playground". San Francisco Recreation and Parks, CA. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
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