Civic-Cultural_overview 1 by pw_marketing

Since 1935, we’ve believed that design has the power to make the world a better, more beautiful place.

That’s why clients and communities on nearly every continent partner with us to design healthy, happy places in which to live, learn, work, play, and heal. We’re passionate about human-centered design, and committed to creating a positive impact in people’s lives through sustainability, resilience, well-being, diversity, inclusion, and research. Our global team of over 2,600 creatives and critical thinkers provides integrated services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and more.

Our San Francisco Studio

Our studio uses design to craft the human experience. We believe in a research-based, interdisciplinary approach that creates sites and buildings focused on the people who inhabit them. Located along San Francisco’s waterfront, we are more than 80 professionals strong with deep Bay Area roots and the resources of a global firm. A communityfocused team, we thrive on projects in which we contribute to the greater good, and help make a lasting, positive change.

Our Purpose

Design has

the power to inspire joy, uplift lives, and strengthen the spirit

of community.

We're in it for the greater good.

Our goal is to design places that make a positive difference in the world. That’s why people are at the heart of everything we do.

We create places with meaning.

There’s so much more to architecture than what meets the eye. Every place has a story, and as we design, we help tell it. Our work enlivens neighborhoods, builds communities, energizes the citizenry, and respects and protects our planet.

We design with purpose. Several ideals ignite our passions and keep us focused on what matters. These core values are the building blocks of who we are and what we stand for. They give us purpose.

Center, South San Francisco.

Interested in mass timber design? Click HERE to check out our case study comparsion ―

“Mass Timber Comparisons: Two San Francisco Case Studies”

Our Core Values

Design Excellence

Diversity and Inclusion

Well-Being

Social Purpose

Sustainability

Resilience

Research

Our Purpose

The best design solutions come from diverse design teams.

“We

Read our best practices for creating a J.E.D.I. culture in any organization.

embed social equity into every aspect of our work, in every community we serve, so that we uplift and celebrate the unique culture of a given place.”

Gabrielle Bullock, Principal, Director of Global Diversity

We’re proud to lead our industry by example.

Our Justice, Equity, Engagement, Diversity, and Inclusion (J.E.D.I.) program is rooted in an ethos that celebrates differences, encourages participation, and ensures everyone is treated fairly.

No matter your age, background, culture, ethnicity, gender identity, language, physical ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, size, or socioeconomic status, you belong here. Your voice matters.

We’re holding ourselves to account.

It’s one thing to say we’re going to do something. It’s another thing to actually do it. That’s why we established the design industry’s first Diversity Council—to ensure we uphold our commitment to J.E.D.I.

Led by our Director of Global Diversity Gabrielle Bullock, the Council is made up of a rotating cross-section of diverse staff from around the world. It’s responsible for maintaining a culture and set of business best practices that celebrate human differences in everything we do.

Our Purpose Design for Life.

Living Design

Since our founding, we’ve been on a mission to create beautiful spaces that inspire. To respect and restore our natural world. To foster feelings of belonging and holistic well-being in the built environment. To relentlessly pursue knowledge and innovation. These are our core values; they give us purpose and direction.

As the world grapples with increasingly complex social issues, climate challenges, and threats to biodiversity, we’re turning our aspirations into action. Through a holistic approach we call Living Design, we treat every project as an opportunity to make the world a better, healthier place.

The Living Design Framework empowers—and challenges—us to apply our values to the specific context of a given project. When we are intentional in allowing each driver to shape our work, we uncover purpose-driven design solutions and achieve something greater: Living Design. Our approach to Living Design fully embraces the mission of the International Living Future Institute, whose values we share and best practices we employ.

Poetics & Beauty

Conceptual Clarity

Resilience & Regeneration Research & Innovation

Technology & Tectonics

Community & Inclusion

Health & Well-Being

Living Design

‘Deep Green’ Architect Jason F. McLennan, Creator of the Living Building Challenge, Merges

His Firm with Perkins&Will

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash.—Jason F. McLennan, one of the most influential “deep green” architects of the last two decades, has joined Perkins&Will as Chief Sustainability Officer and managing director of the firm’s 28th and newest studio in Bainbridge Island, Washington

The merger of his practice, McLennan Design, with Perkins&Will signals both firms’ commitment to reducing—at scale—carbon emissions associated with the built environment. Perkins&Will is the second-largest architecture and design firm in the world with clients and projects on nearly every continent. McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most rigorous green building certification program, and co-author of the WELL building standard and several other industry-leading programs.

“The environmental challenges society faces right now are so significant that we must intensify our efforts around climate action,” says Phil Harrison, Perkins&Will CEO. “Joining forces with Jason and his team is part of those efforts. McLennan Design strengthens Perkins&Will’s expertise in sustainability, allowing us to expand our ‘deep green’ knowledge and best practices to clients and projects around the world.”

“My team and I are eager to help expand, amplify, and accelerate this good work, convincing clients to take sustainability one step further.”

- Jason F. McLennan

Civic Projects

Newark Civic Center

Newark, California

Client:

Completion Date: 2021

― WHAT IT IS

The new Civic Center is more than a place to do the City's business; it is a source of pride and community identification.

The Civic Center, which includes the David W. Smith City Hall, the Newark Police Station, and the Alan L. Nagy library, is the largest project ever undertaken in Newark. The process was streamlined by the architects, builders, and engineers through the Design-Build delivery method, allowing it to be completed on time and on budget.

The three different buildings are centered by a plaza that serves as a multi-function public event space, evoking a distinct town center feel and creating a sense of community for Newark residents.

The team used bridging and schematic documents developed by Heller Manus Architects, in collaboration with Safdie Rabines Architects and McClaren Wilson & Lowrie, Inc as a starting point for the project. Perkins&Will, as the Executive Architect/Architect of Record, further developed and refined the design and completed the project with our Design-Build partner, Webcor Builders.

City of Newark Size: 84,130 square feet

Newark Civic Center

“While the original City Hall has served us well for more than 53 years ... today will rise new facilities where the people’s business will be conducted far into the future.”

― ALAN NAGY, MAYOR, CITY OF NEWARK

Honoring History

The original City Hall was demolished to make way for the new Civic Center, but the design team reclaimed and reused an original stained glass mural that celebrated the history of Newark. In the original building, the stained glass was mounted to a brick façade and backlit from behind, but was only ever experienced from the outside. We thought it was a shame that we couldn’t see the sunlight through the mural, so we divided the scenes of the artwork between the three new buildings and mounted it outside of the glass curtainwalls, filling the lobbies with colored light.

inspires

a positive relationship between the public and their civic agencies.

Top: Locating the buildings around a public plaza

Bottom Left: The library offers an accessible public space for people of all ages.

Bottom Right: The Council Chambers creates a warm, welcoming environment.

Contra Costa County Administration Building

Martinez, California

Client: Contra Costa County Size: 65,000 square feet

Completion Date: July 2024

Sustainability: LEED Platinum, TRUE Zero Waste Gold Delivery Method: Design Build

―

The first government building to achieve TRUE Zero Waste

Ground-up construction of a new office administration building and civic plaza for Contra Costa County in downtown Martinez. The new building replaced a programmatically obsolete and contextually out of scale office tower. Program included a new public law library, ground floor retail space, a parking garage, and office space for multiple County administrative departments including the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, Child Support Services, and County Sheriff.

The new building was sited among existing historic buildings to anchor a new public plaza formed by the vacation of a city street within the County administration campus. The all-electric building employed a number of innovative sustainable features, including high performance energy use with on-site photovoltaics, responsibly sourced finishes, and low embodied carbon cast-in-place concrete. The plaza included street improvements and innovative storm water system that responded to the site’s challenging groundwater table and topography.

View of Admin Building from the Northwest.

The former Pine Street was vacated in front of the building to create a new public plaza.

Contra Costa County Administration Building

University of the Pacific, McGeorge Law Library

Sacramento, California

Client: University of the Pacific

Size: 40,300 square feet

Completion Date: 2011

The design solution for this project resulted from a close collaboration with the university’s administration and library staff, as well as extensive research on peer law libraries and evolving library trends and technology. Limited funding resources led the team to a creative solutions that established a new hierarchical learning center that organizes and draws together the existing complex of six library buildings built over a span of time. The total build-out includes 31,800 sf of renovation and an 8,500 sf addition/expansion.

A new main building entry was created that leads into a large center atrium space that organizes the various library spaces. The design of the library spaces reflect the evolution of the modern library as a social space — where students access information using different technology and subsequently study together in many different social formats.

The modern library is a social space where students study together in many different formats

New main building entry leads to a large central atrium space

University of the Pacific, McGeorge Law Library

Building 12

San

Francisco, California

Client: Brookfield Investments Size: 230,000 square feet

Sustainability: LEED Gold

Completion Date: 2021

― WHAT IT IS

Renovation of an historic building at Pier 70 into a combined market hall and office spaces.

Vibrant community gathering space.

Historic Building 12 will be transformed into the beacon of the future Pier 70 site and the heart and soul of the neighborhood. Built in 1941, the renovation of Building 12 is envisioned as a vibrant community gathering and event space that is integral and connected to the landscape and overall site offering spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay and the city. The design of Building 12 welcomes visitors to the grand market hall via three colossal red portals and fully operable window walls along key facades to provide maximum porosity between the interior market hall and the surrounding pedestrian plazas and streets. While the ground floor and new mezzanine are open to the public, the new second level will house artisan and maker studios and the former Mold Loft on the upper floor will be designed for workplace. The main emphasis of the Building 12 experience will be a celebration of local making and manufacturing which engages the public in the act of manufacturing.

The Makers Market Hall will be a hub for local artisans and manufacturers

: The ground floor is

to the public and invites visitors to engage with the space.

↑

open

“This is an inspiring location, reflective of San Francisco’s history of ingenuity, that will once again be a major source of economic, civic and cultural value to the city.”

― MARK FARRELL, FORMER MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO

History

Originally built in 1941, Building 12 was used for the cutting and forming of steel plates for ship hulls. In keeping with its historic use, the future Building 12 experience will be a celebration of local making and manufacturing that engages the public in the process of manufacturing while providing retail opportunities and event space for public and private events. The Makers Market Hall is envisioned to be a hub for local manufacturers and artisans to create their products onsite and to have an exciting public space to showcase their wares.

Building 12

To adapt to projected 100-year sea-level rise and to ensure the future viability of this project, Building 12 and the adjacent Building 15 historic frame was lifted

10’-0” above current ground level.

Building Lift

Long before the Pier 70 project began, developer Brookfield Properties and the Port of San Francisco determined that the new neighborhood to be built here must address a 100-year projected sea level rise and that Building 12, which once housed the fabrication and cutting of steel sheets for the hulls of the ships built at Pier 70, is a significant historic resource. For the Building 12 design team, these two requirements set forth a design journey that could be deemed heroic, is most certainly innovative and, in some ways, backwards. For new construction, one would simply set the new first floor level at the new grade, however for an existing building, such as Building 12, this decision presented a conundrum. Once the new site grades were complete, the existing first floor would reside some 10-feet below ground. In a move ill-fitting for the faint-hearted, it was decided that Building 12 would be lifted along with the site.

Above: Wood cribbing stacks. Left: Building lift in progress.

James R. Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27

San

Francisco, California

Client: Port of San Francisco Size: 90, 916 square feet plus 2 acres

Completion Date: 2013

Sustainability: LEED Gold ® Awards: Outstanding Airports & Ports Project, ASCE Region 9, 2016; ASCE San Francisco, Award Outstanding Airports & Ports Project, 2015

― WHAT IT IS A new, modern cruise ship terminal

and public waterfront space

The seven-acre Pier 27 pier site is redesigned to provide San Francisco with a modern cruise terminal facility and a new public park that engages both the Embarcadero Promenade and the waterfront. We created a new sustainable cruise terminal facility that provides a pleasant arrival and embarkation experience for passengers. The program addresses the critical long term needs of the cruise ship industry, terminal operators and U.S. Coast and Border Protection, while also allowing for use as “for rent” event space during the cruise ship off-season.

We created the Northeast Wharf Plaza on a two-acre portion of the pier itself, providing public waterfront access and establishing an important new civic node and community resource along the Embarcadero. Design improvements were made to the two-acre “valley” area to create access for ground transportation on cruise days and accommodate various temporal uses the rest of the year.

The first phase of the project was completed in time to provide space for the “Race Village” and serve as the start & finish line for the 2013 America’s Cup Finals and Challenger Series.

Flexible design allows for multiple functions

When the facility is not in use for cruise ship arrivals and departures, the building is designed to quickly convert into an open event space. With stackable furnishings, room dividers, mobile check-in counters and security equipment, the design provides the flexibility to host a variety of functions. Site improvements allow structured access for ground provisioning and vehicular access on cruise days while also accommodating various temporary urban activation uses the rest of the year.

James R. Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27

Cultural Projects

Randall Museum

San Francisco, California

Completion Date: 2013

― WHAT IT IS

Renovation of a community museum for visitors of all ages and interests.

Awarded in 2013, the Randall Museum renovation project offers youth and adults opportunities for active involvement and recreation in an integrated program of arts and sciences. Focusing on the cultures and environment of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Museum strives to inspire creativity, curiosity, and appreciation of the world around us. The Randall Museum houses changing science, art, and interactive exhibits. The renovation will provide the public with a state-of-the art, multisensory educational experience with a goal of connecting visitors to the natural world around us. Through coordination of architectural design, interpretive graphics, and live animal exhibits, we have organized various disciplines for the creation of a place of comprehensive scientific and artistic exploration.

Client: Randall Museum Size: 13,000 square feet

→

The renovation includes exhibits for live animals, geology, oceanography, ecology, and program spaces for a science lab, ceramics room, staging areas, offices, income generating event space, and food preparation.

Randall Museum

Tenderloin Museum

San Francisco, California

Completion Date: 2015

― WHAT IT IS

Preserving a gritty past and progressing toward a bright future.

As part of our Social Purpose program, we partnered with The Tenderloin Housing Clinic to create the Tenderloin Museum—the first museum to tell the story of San Francisco’s historic Tenderloin District.

Located in the historic Cadillac Hotel, the Museum features state of the art, multi-media, interactive exhibitions with restored architecture, historical neon signage build into a historic storefront. The museum uncovers the hidden history of the Tenderloin neighborhood with dynamic exhibit displays from jazz legends to LGBT pioneers and film exchanges.

The project showcases the historic architectural features of the neighborhood and hotel, while designing a contemporary and inviting space. The lobby’s tin ceiling mimics the Tenderloin’s early twentieth century style, while the visitor reception area features a zinc-topped bar reminiscent of the many speakeasies and saloons in the neighborhood. Interactive exhibitions, designed by West Office Exhibition Design, provide an edgy, hands-on experience for visitors.

Client: The Tenderloin Housing Clinic Size: 4,000 square feet

Awards: Walter Jebe Sr. Neighborhood Award, San Francisco History Association, 2018

“The new museum seeks to recognize the rippling, vibrant, and gritty reality of the Tenderloin’s past and present by telling the story of a community that “has persisted against all odds.”

― 7X7 MAGAZINE, NEW TENDERLOIN MUSEUM SHOWCASES THE HEART OF A FORGOTTEN NEIGHBORHOOD

Tenderloin Museum

The Magnes Museum

Berkeley, California

Completion Date: 2012

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life marks the merger of the Magnes Museum and the University of California, Berkeley.

Pfau Long Architecture designed a full renovation of an existing facility that serves as a collection archive, research institution, gallery, and event space dedicated to the Jews in the Global Diaspora and the American West. As one of the preeminent Jewish collections in the world, the facility incorporates areas for displaying the permanent collection, for exhibitions and public programs, as well as collection study, seminar and student rooms; and was designed around an innovative principle of open collection storage. The archival stacks are visible through large glass walls to either side of the display offering blunt honesty about the nature of archival activity, and views that connect these stored elements with the actively displayed ones around you. It’s all there to be seen and to engage the imagination.

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at The Bancroft Library was established in 2010 after the transfer of the Judah L. Magnes Museum to the University of California, Berkeley. Its remarkably diverse archive, library and museum holdings include art, objects, texts, music, and historical documents about accessible to both scholars and visitors.

Client: The Magnes Museum Size: 17,000 square feet

The Magnes’ vision was to reveal the collection (usually hidden in the back rooms) to the visitors. This creates an experience that allows the visitor to realize the depth and extent of the collection, and thus be encouraged to guide their own exploration.

The area’s sensuous wood and glass display cabinets, with their faceted-shapes, creates nooks and crannies that draw your body in to be surrounded by the different and varied collection pieces.

The design of the featured display elements and donor wall is the product of a close collaborative working process with a local designer fabricator, Pacassa Studios.

The Magnes Museum

Curran Theatre

San Francisco, California

Client: CHS Theaters, LLC Size: 22,500 square feet Completion Date: 2016

Entrance from Geary Street

Curran Theatre

Built in 1922, this was the historic Curran Theatre’s first major rehabilitation in decades. The renovation is extensive, holistic, and celebratory. It involves a wide range of improvements to the front-of-house facilities that enhance the pleasure, drama and excitement of going to the theater. Remodeled lobbies include the conversion of second floor offices into a new mezzanine bar. The front of house now features three marble bars, digital displays, work by local artists and festive, elegant lighting. A new transparent connection to the vibrant life of the City has been forged by visually opening the three front of house public spaces/ bars facing onto to Geary Street. As it was in the past, the inviting main lobby has been once again seamlessly connected to the foyer beyond to give access to the theater’s orchestra and box seating. Generous stairs and an elevator take patrons downstairs to a glamorous new lower level with commodious accessible restrooms.

The auditorium interior has been returned to its former glory, with refurbished seats, new carpeting, and both refurbished historic and modernized lighting. A new state-of-the art electrical system has been added, and the Curran’s mechanical systems replaced, ensuring both audience comfort and greater flexibility for productions. The renovation also includes the addition of contemporary life-safety features and removal of barriers to access.

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The 1,650-seat venue was named after Homer Curran, who opened the theater in 1922.

The theater has hosted a five-year run of “The Phantom at the Opera,” and Broadway tryouts for shows including “Wicked” and “Beautiful.”

NOYO Center for Marine Science

Fort Bragg, California

Client: NOYO Center for Marine Science

Size: 25,500 square feet

Completion Date: 2023

To be built in Fort Bragg, California, on a former lumber mill site, this project is intended to be a demonstration project for best regenerative and sustainable practices. The site occupies a prime location on the coastal cliffs and forms a new hub for the network of public shoreline trails, as well as a new economic driver for the local community. The facility brings together interpretive understanding of the fragile shoreline ecosystem, the history of place, and facilities for active marine research. The Fort Bragg community shares a strong commitment to delivering a new regenerative building design standard which would include NZE, WELL Building, LEED Platinum, and Perkins&Will’s Living Design program. The NOYO Center utilizes numerous sustainable building strategies, including: rainwater collection for irrigation, vegetated swales, solar optimized PV array, vertical wind turbines, and cross laminated timber (CLT).

The building skin is designed with acetylated wood - an emerging wood technology.

Hands-on Education

Inspiring a generation of citizen scientists, the NOYO Center brings hands-on education and natural resource stewardship to engage the community and inspire connection.

A 73-ft female blue whale skeleton floats above the central exhibition hall space. In 2009, this stunning marine mammal suffered a lethal injury from a ship’s propeller off the coast of Fort Bragg. The NOYO Center and over 200 community members worked together to bury the carcass in compost, unearth and clean the bones, and restore the skeleton for exhibition. The floor of the exhibition hall can accommodate similar large-scale skeleton articulations.

A 50-foot tall kelp tank anchors the exhibition space, providing a window into the local nearshore coastal ecosystem.

73-foot female blue whale skeleton floats above a central exhibition space.

SPUR Urban Center

San Francisco, California

Client: San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) Size: 14,6000 square feet

Completion Date: 2009 Sustainability: LEED Silver ®

This one of a kind center permanently houses all SPUR staff and volunteers, and provides additional space for community group meetings, discussion and debate on city-based projects, permanent and traveling exhibitions, current projects displays, and public policy research.

With its transparent, open design and proximity to major transit, the design allows SPUR to host more events in its own location, helps SPUR connect to a network of urban centers with which to share exhibits and library collections, and earn income through seminar and event rentals.

In keeping with SPUR’s mission to promote sustainable development in San Francisco, the SPUR Urban Center is a successful example of delivering a small, state-of-the-art sustainable urban building, and includes exhibits explaining how these systems work.

― WHAT IT IS

New headquarters to increase public accessibility and accommodate growing membership.

Above and Right: SPUR is conveniently located in the evolving South of Market (SoMa) cultural district.

We developed a four-story structure that includes a spacious exhibit space on the ground floor, a 125-seat multipurpose hall, accommodations for more than 15 staff members, and an Urban Affairs Library with adjacent outdoor deck on the uppermost level available for events and gatherings.

SPUR Urban Center

Enchanted Hills Camp

Napa, California

Client: LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired Size: 311 acre site

Providing Accessible Exploration

For over 70 years, Enchanted Hills Camp and Retreat has provided blind and visually impaired visitors with unparalleled opportunity for outdoor recreation and skills development.

In the aftermath of the 2017 fires, Enchanted Hills Camp had the opportunity to create a more effective and engaging camp experience. Reimagining the physical environment to more directly serve the goals of the camp will not only enhance the features and qualities campers already value but will also allow the camp to evolve over time and to better serve its future users.

We worked with LightHouse and camp stakeholders to develop a masterplan, negotiate their entitlements, and design nearly 30 new buildings.

Completion Date: 2024

Accessible Design Process

How does an architect communicate design plans to a client with visual impairment? Thinking about textures and lines, we built a tactile model so we could share our plans with our client by touch. We started by building a simple topographical model out of cardboard. Proposed new buildings were covered in sandpaper, while existing buildings were smooth. It took a few iterations and tests to figure out how to make the model legible to our clients. We experimented with several materials to symbolize the pathways and landed on using a cord to demonstrate the winding trails. For the buildings themselves, we worked with the LightHouse MAD Lab to create tactile prints and any time we were showing renderings, we would couple them with a very detailed description of what was shown on the screen.

Paths feature a cane detectable guiding edge to make navigating the site more accessible.

La Cocina Municipal Marketplace

San Francisco, California

Completion Date: 2021

― WHAT IT IS

The Marketplace is the first all-womenled food hall in the country, and an iconic new look at the Bay Area’s food scene.

The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities. They focus primarily on women of color and from immigrant communities. Their vision is that entrepreneurs gain financial security by doing what they love to do, while creating an innovative, vibrant and inclusive economic landscape

Located in an abandoned US Post Office, the La Cocina Municipal Marketplace is a 7,000 square foot food hall with a focus on equitable economic opportunity for entrepreneurs, affordable and healthy eating options for residents and workers of the Tenderloin. This temporary project (5–10 years) will prove long-term viability of a market hall retail model for any affordable housing that might be built on the site, will engage the community, make the specific corner more vibrant and stand, nationally, as an example of conscientious community building and economic development.

Client: La Cocina Size: 7,000 square feet

“La Cocina’s Municipal marketplace is actively combating the higher unemployment rates and historical lack of investment that has hurt economic prospects for those in the Tenderloin.”

― CALEB ZIGAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

La Cocina Municipal Marketplace

Playland at 43rd

San Francisco, California

Client: Pavement to Parks Size: 60,000 square feet

Project of the Year, San Francisco Parks Alliance, 2017

Completion Date: 2016 Awards: Innovative

Playland at 43rd, located in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District, is many things at once: a skate park, a community garden, and an events plaza. It is also a symbol, marking a community-wide effort to transform an unused schoolyard into the city’s first community center west of Sunset Boulevard.

For many years, the site—one of the largest pieces of public property in the area—was little more than a parking lot, dominated by a neglected school building, built a century ago and no longer up to seismic code. Area residents, working with city officials, pushed for the lot’s inclusion in San Francisco’s innovative Pavement to Parks program, eventually selecting Perkins and Will as master plan architect. Working quickly, the firm created a framework for Playland’s development, beginning with community charrettes to develop a vision, followed by conceptual design and renderings of each of the park’s many areas. Much of the detailing was by volunteers who continue on as stewards.

Today, Playland hosts yoga classes, the mechanic’s shop for a bike-rental company, and any number of toddlers’ first steps. The title recalls Playland at the Beach, one of San Francisco’s best-loved amusement parks.