San Francisco Will Spend $9.2 Million Making Hallidie Plaza Accessible

San Francisco Public Works is designing a $9.2 million accessibility rebuild of Hallidie Plaza, the sunken plaza at Market and Cyril Magnin streets that forms the street-level entrance to the Powell Street BART and Muni station. The plan removes a decommissioned elevator and replaces it with two ramps. The department held its third community meeting on the design on August 20, 2026.

What the Project Does

Public Works describes two pieces of construction. A main ramp will connect Market Street level to the plaza level, and a second, smaller ramp will connect the plaza level to the BART and Muni station level below. Both are being designed to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The decommissioned Market Street elevator will be permanently removed rather than repaired.

The department lists the budget as $9.2 million and says the project was designated for Proposition B funding and awarded $9 million for design and construction, after advocacy from the city’s Office on Disability and Accessibility. The project team is Public Works, that office, the San Francisco Real Estate Division, and BART. The site is in District 3.

The Timeline

Planning ran from summer 2025 to fall 2025. Design runs from fall 2025 through winter 2026. Construction is scheduled to start in summer 2027 and finish in spring 2028. That means anyone arriving at Powell Street station over the next year will find the plaza in its current configuration, escalators and all.

Public engagement is still open. The first open house was July 23, 2025, the second meeting was April 21, 2026, and the third was August 20, 2026 at the Disability Cultural Center at 165 Grove Street. Presentation slides from the 2025 and April 2026 meetings are posted on the project page, and the department lists a project manager and contact email for questions.

Why This Plaza

Hallidie Plaza opened in 1973. Public Works credits the design to architects Lawrence Halprin, John Carl Warnecke and Mario Ciampi, and says the plaza was built to improve public transit access to BART. It is named after Andrew Smith Hallidie, who the department describes as the inventor of the cable car.

Public Works calls the Powell Street station “a key stop for travelers” and “a main entry point to San Francisco,” which is a fair description of what the plaza does on a normal day: it is where a large share of arriving visitors first come up to street level. The Market Street elevator that used to serve it is decommissioned, which is why Public Works is proposing ramps rather than a replacement lift.

What Else Is Changing Nearby

Cable car fares change in January 2027, moving to a $12 single ride and an $18 day structure. We covered that in our guide to the Muni payment and cable car fare changes. For the rest of what is happening downtown this fall, see our guide to things to do in San Francisco in September 2026.

Project details from San Francisco Public Works’ Hallidie Plaza Accessibility Improvements page.

Photo: Mickey Løgitmark, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.