Friends of Esprit Park

Friends of Esprit Park is a dedicated group of neighbors who hosts monthly cleanups and works to improve the park with new benches, tables, and improved pathways and signage.

Friends of Esprit Park is a neighborhood organization dedicated to supporting Esprit Park as a multi-use, community enriching green space.

Esprit Park was initially developed in the 1980s as a private park for the employees of the Esprit de Corps company – which had the first modern office campus. At the time, the company had 300 employees and Dogpatch had about 200 residents. The park was open to the public and was maintained and landscaped by private gardeners. The original landscape architect for the project was Drew Detsch, a founding member of Friends of Esprit Park and an active consultant on the upcoming renovation of the park.

In 1996, Friends of Esprit Park was founded to advocate for the protection and preservation of Esprit Park as a green oasis in the urban fabric of San Francisco. Esprit de Corps shut down operations in Dogpatch and the park’s future was unknown. The City of San Francisco was reluctant to add another park to maintain, and developers were interested in building on the land. Fortunately, neighbors banded together to save the park and with Mayor Brown’s support, the city agreed to keep Esprit Park.

Since then, Friends of Esprit Park has played an active role in community engagement, ensuring that the voices of the people who love Esprit Park are always heard and taken into consideration. The current board of Friends of Esprit Park was active in advocating for and raising $7.4 million to give Esprit Park a much needed makeover. The group welcomes you to join them and help keep this gem in Dogpatch a welcoming, green space for everyone to enjoy.

Project Type: Greening, Playgrounds