Alley-Cat Bench / Fern Alley Prototype

Fern Alley was one of the first Alley Alleys to be renovated under INTERSTICE’s Alleyways District Vision Plan sponsored by the Lower Polk Neighbor’s Neighborhood Association. Th Alleyway’s District Vison Plan (Link to master plan page) identified 12 alleys between Golden Gate and California Street for beautification towards making them publicly shared Green-Alley Commons spaces, focused on dining, and events and residential building entries, that enhance pedestrian street culture by leveraging the new adjacent housing development, and institutions like Music City and the Community Benefit district offices.

In collaboration with the city of San Franscisco and the department of Public Works (DPW), INTERSTICE hosted interactive community design meetings and developed this “Artists” alley specifically to honor the poets, musicians , writers and many creatives that have historically inspired this area. The Polk area once the original “Castro” district for the GLBTQ community from the time when the stonewall marches happened here in the late 70’s and its nightlife and eclectic mix of thrift stores, wine bars, music venues and funky shops and cafes which run the gamut from chic to shabby with something for everyone.

ALLEY-CAT Bench

We designed The “ALLEY-CAT Bench” for these new alleyways – inspired by the need for public seating that could lock away, and “vanish” against the building facades at night to allow street cleaning and passage on already tightly cramped sidewalks typical of these smaller scale byways in the urban fabric.

This prototype is made of cold formed stainless steel and iron wood to make it Street-wise and very durable when opened as a comfortable bench for two – or when folded up to disappear like an Alley-cat in the wink of an eye. When locked it becomes a discrete and impenetrable rectangle of armored ¼” stainless steel.

In its locked Condition it farms a thin 4” profile and can be bolted directly against a façade into the sidewalk. This is the allowable projection from a building façade for a city sidewalk and so these benches can remain in place, in the public realm, to be deployed and controlled by the host business with a single key that opens and closes the folding street bench. Now you see it and now you don’t – The Alley cat bench is ready for roll-out. Contact us if you are interested in having one for your own street frontage!