San Fran­cis­co’s Tun­nel Tops—“a 14-acre visu­al extrav­a­gan­za that spills toward the bay from the his­toric cen­ter of the for­mer Army post, now a nation­al park”—will get a new addi­tion designed to “make repeat vis­i­tors more com­fort­able,” reports John King in the San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle.

The expan­sion, Out­post Mead­ow, will replace a park­ing lot. “The main con­stituen­cy for the new mead­ow will be fam­i­lies vis­it­ing the Out­post from through­out the city and the Bay Area. Instead of tun­nel-top views, the lure here will be sev­er­al dozen pic­nic tables and the tod­dler-friend­ly oval mead­ow.” The plan also calls for more space for food trucks along Mason Street to pro­vide near­by food options.

“On paper, the most star­tling aspect of the expan­sion may be what isn’t includ­ed. The south­ern third of the asphalt plateau along Sports Base­ment will remain, re-striped to insert more park­ing so that the over­all num­ber of spaces remains rough­ly the same.” Offi­cials say this, along with cypress trees and shrubs, will help buffer the park from the adja­cent free­way.

Con­struc­tion on Tun­nel Tops, which spans the six-lane Pre­sidio Park­way,  began in 2018 after more than two decades of advo­ca­cy. The park opened last July, and the Pre­sidio Trust esti­mates it will receive 1.8 mil­lion vis­i­tors in its first year.