San Francisco’s Muni Stops

Cable cars have been synonymous with San Francisco since the 1800’s.  We correct people all the time in the vernacular of cable car versus trolly, but, we have trolly lines too.  Our muni system is just that.  Muni covers much of the city, and many people that visit our town ride the vintage trolly cars along the embarcadero.  For twenty years the muni system sought to expand its line from 4th and King streets (one block from our baseball park) along 3rd street to Candlestick park.  It finally accomplished this feat.  Originally envisioned as a simple rail line with minimal stations and platforms it grew into a more elaborate system with raised platforms and dedicated roadway.

During it’s conception the S.F. Arts commission selected a team of ten artists to participate in the project.  Rather than have the art designed and sited independent at the end of the planning and design, the artists were brought in early on to give their input.  As a result of this collaboration, several artists became involved in developing concepts for the corridor as well as for individual sites.

The design effort lasted about a year and included three community workshops and nine neighborhood workshops.  The result was unifying elements in the design.  These include the trackway paving, station elements, including crosswalks, ticketing, shelters, windscreens and signage, street lighting and color scheme.  They also included unique elements that included, plantings, art elements and special streetscape elements.

Three of the stations have site specific art.  The first of these is stop number one at Fourth and King Streets.

To top it all off, there are tracks running across the canopy.