how public?

COMMONspace

New! - Check out the COMMONspace Video Podcast

Spring 2006 - Spring 2007

COMMONspace is a project to explore and evaluate San Francisco's privately-owned public spaces.

In an effort to provide more public space downtown, the City of San Francisco has partnered with private developers to create a number of privately-owned public spaces. Some of these spaces are open and inviting - activated by public use. Others are under heavy surveillance, difficult to find, appear private, or are fundamentally inaccessible. To date, these spaces have not been systematically evaluated.

The goal of COMMONspace is to evaluate, activate and reclaim these spaces as a critical part of the public realm and as a valuable component of San Francisco's intellectual and artistic commons. We aim to determine just how public are these privately-owned public spaces?

Rebar has partnered with Snap Out Of It to conduct a series of events and paraformances in these spaces. To learn more about the paraformances, watch the videos!

To see a catalog of the spaces, visit our Interactive Map

COMMONspace is supported by

Surveillance camera photo by David Gartner