Salesforce Transit Center

Above a shiny, gleeming new transit center with polished white supports, mosaic tile floors, curved lines, and the usual fleet of buses and transportation is an improbable 5.4 acre park with trees, lawns, gathering areas, and views of the surrounding San Francisco skyline.

The elevators from the central interior plaza take you up to the public park which sits under open skies and framed by skyscrapers. You can walk the full circuit on a curving and meandering concrete path that takes you on a botanical garden tour, including a section with desert-native plants. Other areas look like a traditional urban open space park with lush lawns and mature trees, except when you look across the expanse you have to remember that you are elevated high up above the street level, a roof of sorts to a transit center below you.

Along the perimeter facing north-west toward Mission Street, the walking path parallels a fountain that you won't notice until a bus down below traverses the street, activating pressure points that pump water up through the fountain above. You watch the bus move along the road, its virtual form a series of water jets that delight young and 60-year old children who wait for the fountain's activation.

A wide open, sunny plaza sits in the center of the park, with dozens of tables and chairs. An area is set aside for children with carts of books and art supplies. It's really an amazing use of open space, surrounded by the lush park gardens. Adjacent, a Starbucks opens into the Salesforce Tower.

You can take a gondola up from the northwest side of the transit center street level to the park. The gondola transports you only in this direction, returning to the street empty to pick up its next collection of passengers. It's a brief ride attended to by a cheerful operator. I asked him if, when he gets home, whether he gratefully takes flights of stairs up rather than the elevator. He laughed, but said he and the others take limited turns at operating the gondola, so perhaps even he doesn't tire of the views.