History

San Francisco Public Works was officially created on January 8, 1900 with the official name of Board of Public Works. Our first task was to organize and regulate street construction and paving projects throughout the city. Our original four bureaus were: Streets, Lighting, Building, and Light & Water Services. Over the next century and nearly two decades our roles have shifted and expanded dramatically.

For the Hetch Hetchy Project, Public Works oversaw the construction of the O’Shaughnessy Dam and a system of aqueducts that connected it to San Francisco. The system is now operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

The Gateway Arch (Dragon Gate) on Grant Avenue at Bush Streets marks the entry to Chinatown, which was dedicated on October 18th, 1970. This iconic symbol conforms to Chinese gateway standards using stone from the base to the top and features a green tiled roof. Public Works maintains the cleanliness and integrity of the gateway.

City Hall suffered extensive damage during the Loma Prieta Earthquake. A necessary seismic upgrade provided the impetus to restore the building’s architectural beauty as well as bring it into the 21st century with state of the art technology. City Hall suffered extensive damage during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Community Clean Team, San Francisco Public Works’ longest-running and largest volunteer program, begins. The program stages cleanup events once a month for each district through landscaping and gardening projects, graffiti removal and litter cleanup. Today, the program is now known as Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day.

Phase 1 of the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) bond passes to provide $420.4 million to fund improvements to essential public safety facilities and seismically upgrade their aging infrastructure.

James R. Herman Cruise Terminal opens at Pier 27. Public Works oversaw the development of the existing Pier 27 into a new primary cruised ship terminal and public plaza.

Pit Stop Program begins in the Tenderloin to provide clean and safe public toilets, as well as used-needle receptacles and dog waste stations, in San Francisco's most impacted neighborhoods. All the Pit Stop facilities are staffed by paid attendants who help ensure that the bathrooms are well maintained and used for their intended purpose.

The historic San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building, opened in 1932 and site of the signing of the United Nations Charter but 1945, gets essential seismic upgrades and improvements.

San Francisco’s new Police Department Headquarters and public safety campus opens in Mission Bay neighborhood. Public Works provided project and construction management.

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center - The seismically safe acute care and trauma center opened this year. It was financed by a $887.4 million obligation bond and construction was managed by Public Works.

First Navigation Center opens in the Mission District on a former school site. The innovative homeless shelter aims to move people living in street encampments into more stable housing.

Proposition E is approved by 76 percent of voters, allowing Public Works to care for the City’s nearly 135,000 street trees and fix tree-related sidewalk damage under the new StreetTreeSF program. 

Margaret Hayward Playground reopens following a $28 million renovation that transformed the beloved 6-acre park in the heart of the Western Addition into a modern hub for recreation.

San Francisco voters approve a ballot measure to split Public Works into two, creating a new Department of Sanitation and Streets to focus on street cleaning, tree care and other operations functions. However, before the split was fully implemented, voters went back to the ballot and reversed course in 2022 to keep the department whole. Both ballot measures created two commissions. The Public Works Commission is responsible for overseeing department performance, approves contracts, reviews contract performance and annually reviews the department’s performance. The Sanitation and Streets Commission establishes minimum standards of cleanliness for the public right of way and sets baselines for services.

The COVID-19 global pandemic saw Public Works employees, as designated essential workers, on the front line of the City’s response with creativity and flexibility by reprioritizing resources and deploying staff where needed to keep San Francisco clean, safe and resilient.

Fireboat Station No. 35 opens at Pier 22 ½ as a two-story, 14,837-square-foot facility built on top of a steel float anchored by guide piles, allowing it to rise and fall with the natural tide of the Bay, king tides and projected sea level rise.

The state-of-the-art Animal Care and Control facility opens to serve the City’s animals and the humans who care for them.  

At the northern edge of San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, the Southeast Community Center opens as an oasis of community-building against an industrial backdrop.

San Francisco is awarded a $12 Million Federal Grant to plant thousands of new street trees to fight climate change and provide green jobs

San Francisco Public Works opens the City's first street tree nursery, an initiative that focuses on expansion of the City’s urban forest, climate protection and workforce development to benefit underserved communities.