Vision

The “Piazza Saint Francis, The Poets Plaza” is envisioned as a simple piazza honoring Peacemakers and Poets, and the community of North Beach in the great City of San Francisco.


It will be located on a portion of Vallejo Street between Columbus and Grant Avenue and will be framed by two historic San Francisco landmarks, The National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi built in 1859, the Porziuncola Nuova built in 2008 and Caffe Trieste which opened it doors in 1956 to become the first espresso coffee house on the West Coast.

The Piazza will become agarden of wishes, a garden of dreams, and a place to ponder, reflect and to meet new and old friends over a cup of cappuccino. Much like a village piazza in Umbria the new piazza is envisioned as a social landscape or a sense of place, as well as a beautiful architectural landscape that will incorporate a new paved surface of green and white granite bands that are inspired by Italys magnificent cathedrals in Florence, Orvieto and Siena. The alternating marble bands are intended to be timeless and will extend from the face of the Porziuncola Nuova and National Shrine of Saint Francis, to the face of Caffe Trieste are envisioned as a symbolic bridge that will connect and unite the history of these remarkable landmarks to the future of North Beach.

The new piazza will serve as a venue that will unite and seam artistic and neighborhood mainImage1narratives together to form a new community center for North Beach. This extraordinary setting will become a magical site that visitors around the world will visit and discover. It will be a new place to meet others. It will become a happening to recite poetry and to listen to tragic poets rap, gossip and shout, Peace to the World.

It will become North Beachs new outdoor living room where one can listen to opera on Saturdays from the windows of Café Trieste and a place to linger to Sunday concerts from the steps of the National Shrine.


The proposed design for “The Piazza Saint Francis, The Poets Plaza” documents the typology of its setting and context. It is an attempt to renegotiate our history with our future. The design is kept simple and avoids visual noise or architectural distractions as it is envisioned as a sacred place. It incorporates two simple benches, one to watch the sunrise and one to watch the sun set. It will have new olive trees, soft scented landscape, a small sheet of water to symbolize purity and to reflect the sky and viewer.

See a story on We The Italians about the Alioto family and its role in the project.

The Piazza Saint Francis will be simply inspirational and a luminous piazza that will guide those who live in our City and those who do not, to come North Beach new urban oasis.