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The Hunters Point Substation is a proposed PG&E utility facility in San Francisco that would replace the existing substation on Jennings Street with a new building on Evans Avenue between Keith Street and Middle Point Road. Its unusual feature is a public-facing program: the design pairs electrical infrastructure with a plaza, community gardens and a landscaped streetscape on a former military and industrial site.
It is not a completed building. PG&E says the plans were paused while it assesses whether a smaller, more efficient design can meet community electricity needs with less land use and fewer construction and traffic impacts. The published architectural and energy features therefore describe a proposal, not verified as-built conditions or operating performance.
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What the Hunters Point Substation project is
PG&E’s project is a replacement substation for the Hunters Point area of San Francisco. The planned facility is on Evans Avenue, between Keith Street and Middle Point Road; the existing substation that it is intended to replace is on Jennings Street. The site is described by the project’s design sources as part of a former military base, with the industrial history creating an opportunity to put essential infrastructure alongside civic space.
A substation converts, switches and distributes electricity between parts of the power grid. It must accommodate high-voltage equipment, control systems, access for maintenance and safety clearances. In this proposal, those operational requirements are set within an architectural and landscape scheme intended to be visible and useful to the surrounding community rather than an isolated utility compound.
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PG&E is the project owner and utility sponsor. Tatiana Bilbao Estudio is the architectural design studio identified on the project page. Creo’s project material describes the landscape and public-realm elements, including paving, furniture, lighting, streetscape work and stormwater design. A separate URB-IN listing labels the project “In progress,” but PG&E’s own status page is the stronger source for the current position: the plans are paused for assessment.
Where it would be built and what it would replace
Planned Evans Avenue site
PG&E identifies the proposed parcel as Evans Avenue between Keith Street and Middle Point Road in Hunters Point. That location matters because it places a major electrical facility within a neighborhood undergoing redevelopment on land associated with former military and industrial uses. The project is not a new substation somewhere else in the city; it is intended to replace the Jennings Street facility serving the area.
Ownership and responsibility
PG&E would own and operate the electrical infrastructure. The architects and landscape designers shape the building and its public edges, but their drawings do not transfer utility responsibility or establish that every proposed space will be publicly accessible at all times. Operational access, safety controls and any final public-hours rules would depend on the design that PG&E ultimately selects and permits.
How large is the proposed facility?
Published project information gives two materially different area figures. They should be reported with their original attribution rather than blended into one number.
| Source | Reported area | What the source describes |
|---|---|---|
| Building Design + Construction, July 2022 | 30,000 square feet | A three-story facility described as a stacked-bars building |
| Tatiana Bilbao Estudio project page, accessed October 13, 2026; publication year not stated | 5,650 m² (approximately 60,816 square feet) | The project area listed by the design studio |
The sources do not explain whether the difference reflects a change in scope, a distinction between building and site area, or a later revision. Treating 30,000 square feet and 5,650 m² as interchangeable would create a false precision. The reliable conclusion is that the proposal is a substantial, multi-level utility project, while its exact reported area remains source-dependent.
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Who designed it and what the client requested
Tatiana Bilbao Estudio’s architectural concept
Tatiana Bilbao Estudio presents the project as a design for stacked masses that respond to the technical and environmental demands of a substation. The studio says computational fluid dynamics informed the form, with thermal efficiency treated as a design concern. That means digital analysis was used to study how air and heat could move around or through the proposed arrangement of volumes; it does not, by itself, prove a particular energy-use result.
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Tatiana Bilbao Estudio states: “The client requested that the substation incorporate both public and semi-private spaces, including a plaza and community gardens.” The wording is important. It describes a client requirement for the design, not evidence that the spaces have been built or that every part of the site will be open without restrictions.
Landscape and public-realm work
Creo’s description expands the outdoor scope beyond a bare forecourt. It identifies plaza paving and furniture, streetscape improvements, artistic lighting and an integrated stormwater approach. These elements would make the public edge function as a neighborhood landscape while still serving a facility with security and maintenance needs. The available material does not establish a final planting schedule, dimensions, event calendar or operating policy.
What public amenities are proposed?
A plaza at the utility building
The plaza is the clearest public-facing component. It is intended to create a civic threshold between the street and the substation, with paving and furniture described by the landscape material. A plaza can provide a place to pause, meet or move through the site, but its practical use would be shaped by equipment clearances, emergency access and the final security plan.
Community gardens
Community gardens were specifically named in the client brief. They would add productive planting space to a former industrial and military setting and could support neighborhood stewardship. The sources do not specify the number of plots, soil remediation method, irrigation system, management organization or whether the gardens would be permanent if the substation footprint changes.
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Streetscape, lighting and furniture
The landscape proposal includes streetscape work, public furniture and artistic lighting. Those features are more than decoration: they help define where people walk, how the building meets Evans Avenue and how the site is perceived after dark. Final fixture locations and lighting levels would have to be coordinated with utility security, neighboring properties and city approvals.
Stormwater features
Creo also describes integrated stormwater design. On a previously developed site, managing runoff at the parcel can reduce pressure on public drainage and make landscape areas perform an environmental function. No source provides a capacity figure, a named storm standard or evidence that the system has been installed.
Do the parks and trails belong to the substation?
Building Design + Construction places the project within a broader development that includes planned parks and trails. Those amenities should not be counted as part of the substation parcel. The plaza, gardens and streetscape are the elements tied directly to the facility; larger parks or shoreline trails are contextual projects, not confirmed components of the substation site.
How the proposed architecture handles a working utility
Stacked masses instead of a single opaque block
The 2022 Building Design + Construction report describes a three-story form made from stacked bars. Tatiana Bilbao Estudio uses the broader term “stacked masses.” In either description, the strategy breaks the building into layered volumes rather than presenting one undifferentiated box. That creates a recognizable civic form while allowing the utility program to remain organized across levels.
Computational fluid dynamics and thermal efficiency
The studio says computational fluid dynamics helped develop the form to optimize thermal efficiency. For a substation, heat management is a practical issue because electrical equipment produces heat and maintenance conditions must remain safe. The design claim is that the massing and airflow were studied together. It is not a measured post-occupancy result, and the published sources do not provide energy-use targets, modeled loads or temperature data.
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Material description is not settled
The sources use different language for the exterior. Building Design + Construction reports a precast-concrete façade intended to suggest rammed earth. Tatiana Bilbao Estudio says rammed earth was specified. Because neither source resolves whether the specification changed or whether one description refers to appearance and the other to construction, the material should be treated as a proposal. There is no verified as-built façade to report.
Balancing access and control
Combining public space with a substation creates a design boundary that ordinary civic buildings do not have. People need a legible route to the plaza and gardens, while PG&E needs controlled access to electrical equipment, service areas and emergency routes. The proposed public and semi-private zoning acknowledges that distinction. Detailed gates, setbacks, equipment screens and access hours are not established in the available project descriptions.
What the energy goal means
Net-zero or zero-net-energy ambition
Project descriptions characterize the proposal as aiming for net-zero or as being designed to zero-net-energy standards. These phrases identify an intended performance goal. They do not confirm certification, completed commissioning or a building that has demonstrated net-zero operation.
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The sources identify three broad strategies:
- Photovoltaics: solar generation is part of the proposed energy approach.
- Natural ventilation: airflow is intended to support thermal performance where the utility program allows.
- Efficient systems: building systems are described as being selected for reduced energy demand.
The relationship between these strategies and the electrical equipment is not fully published. A substation’s own loads, safety requirements and equipment heat must be accounted for before a net-zero claim can be tested. No source supplies a final photovoltaic capacity, annual energy model, certification body, commissioning report or operating data.
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Current owner statement
PG&E says: “We have listened to the community and are currently assessing the design and construction of the Hunters Point Substation.” The company says the project plans were paused while it evaluates a potentially smaller design that could meet community electricity needs with fewer construction and traffic impacts.
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The decision now under assessment
PG&E’s stated decision axis is between resuming the original plan and moving forward with a smaller, more efficient design. The comparison is not presented as a completed public alternatives study, and the sources do not identify the smaller option’s area, height, equipment layout, cost or schedule. What is established is the reason for reassessment: meeting power needs while reducing land use and construction-related disruption.
Why the fall 2023 date should not be repeated as an outcome
Building Design + Construction wrote in July 2022 that completion was expected by fall 2023. That was a forecast at the time, not confirmation that the building opened or reached operation. PG&E’s later status statement says the plans were paused and gives no current construction date. The project should therefore be described as proposed and under assessment, not completed.
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- Whether PG&E will resume the original design or select the smaller alternative.
- Whether construction has started under a revised scope.
- The final building and site area, height and equipment arrangement.
- The final façade material and landscape package.
- Any completion date, energy certification or measured operating performance.
Why this project matters to construction and urban design
Most substations are judged primarily by reliability, safety and capacity. Hunters Point adds a second test: whether infrastructure can contribute to neighborhood life on land with a difficult industrial history. The proposed plaza and gardens make the utility edge part of the public realm, while the stacked form and environmental strategies attempt to give a technical building a visible architectural identity.
That ambition also creates trade-offs. Public access must be compatible with electrical hazards and maintenance vehicles. Garden soils and stormwater systems must respond to site conditions that may reflect former industrial use. A smaller design could reduce construction traffic and land consumption, but it could also change the amount of public space, the building’s massing and the feasibility of the proposed energy systems. Until PG&E completes its assessment, those outcomes cannot be treated as settled.
How to read the project’s published claims
For planners, neighbors and construction professionals, the safest way to interpret the available material is to separate three categories:
- Established project facts: PG&E identifies the Evans Avenue location and the replacement of the Jennings Street substation; PG&E is assessing paused plans.
- Design proposals: the plaza, gardens, streetscape, stacked masses, rammed-earth or rammed-earth-like material treatment, photovoltaics, natural ventilation and efficient systems belong to the published concept.
- Unverified outcomes: completion, final dimensions, built materials, certification and operating energy performance have not been established by the cited sources.
This distinction prevents a rendering or design description from being mistaken for an as-built condition. It also leaves room for the smaller alternative PG&E is considering without misrepresenting it as a finalized redesign.
Bottom line for readers
The Hunters Point Substation is a proposed PG&E replacement facility that tries to make essential electrical infrastructure part of a neighborhood’s public realm. Tatiana Bilbao Estudio’s concept and Creo’s landscape description include a plaza, community gardens, streetscape improvements, lighting, furniture and stormwater work, with computationally informed massing and a net-zero ambition. The project is not confirmed as built: PG&E has paused the plans for assessment and has not published a new construction date, final design or verified energy performance.
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