This Saturday, Oct. 24, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Noe Valley Town Square at 3861 24th St. is throwing its "10 Year Birthday Bash." The new lights may be the evening's main event. According to the Noe Valley Voice, the plaza is getting 75 programmable bulbs that are 50 percent brighter than the current fixtures and can change color in time with live music. A $25,000 grant from the nonprofit Avenue Greenlight is paying for them.
For most of its history this quarter-acre ran on daylight. The new lighting is the clearest sign yet that the square's second decade is being planned around its evenings.
A lot that ran on Saturday mornings
The site's earlier uses were all daytime ones. Hoodline's coverage of the 2016 opening reports that it was a gas station from the 1930s to the early 1990s. Soil remediation and removal of the underground tanks ran from 1991 to 1999. After that it was a parking lot owned by the Noe Valley Ministry.
The weekly farmers market moved onto the lot after the Real Food Company's 24th Street store closed in 2003. When the church decided to sell, neighbors organized to keep the land as a park and a permanent home for the market. The square's main tenant was still a Saturday-morning event. In October 2026 the market runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Here's how the lot became a park:
- May 2013: The Noe Valley Voice reported that supporters had pledged nearly $500,000 toward converting the lot, and that a separate $723,000 state grant application was pending. Chris Guillard of CMG Landscape Architecture designed the concept, which called for trees, a long trellis, gardens, children's play areas and both built-in and movable seating.
- June 2013: The Recreation and Park Department bought the 10,829-square-foot site for $4.2 million.
- April 17, 2014: The Recreation and Park Commission approved the concept design. A department staff report describes more than four years of work among Rec and Park, the group Residents for Noe Valley Town Square, then-Supervisor Scott Wiener's office and the San Francisco Parks Alliance.
- January 2016: Construction began. The site closed for ten months, and the market moved out onto 24th Street. In September, crews laid the permeable pavers built to hold the market stalls.
- October 27, 2016: The square opened to the public. Building it cost $2.8 million, on top of the $4.2 million land price. It opened with a children's play area, seating, lighting, and the "Garden Guardians" owl sculptures by Wowhaus.
How the evenings filled up
Over ten years, the square has picked up a lot of uses beyond produce. The Voice's front-page photo caption this month lists the square as a place to meet a friend, buy a tomato, watch a debate, wear your Halloween costume, hear jazz, folk or classical, and dance to the all-femme salsa band Agua Pura. The paper also describes it as a popular place for outdoor dining and a children's play area.
More and more of the regular programming now happens late in the day. This October's calendar includes:
- the Friday Noe Music in the Square series, 5 to 6 p.m.
- the Noe Valley Merchants Night Market, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.
- free monthly outdoor classes from Rhythm & Motion, which has held them in the square since 2022
The fixtures lighting those evenings went in nearly seven years ago. Joshua Hubert, the same designer handling this upgrade, installed them. Since then the square has added more programming after sunset, and the lights now have to support it.
Seventy-five bulbs that respond to the band
Hubert runs Glow Fidelity, a lighting design studio in West Oakland. He told the Noe Valley Voice that the new lights can react to music played in the square, changing color or "appearing to dance along in various lighting patterns." He added, "All the lights can be programmed and scheduled." The system can also run themed lighting for the holidays and for occasions like Pride Month in June. It will add brightness over the stage area and the pergola on the square's west side.
He has done this on a much larger scale. The Voice compares the plan to his SPECTRA-SF installation in Civic Center: 1.6 acres of lights across the rooftops of the San Francisco Public Library's main branch and the Asian Art Museum. Its 1,271 bulbs "sparkle and pulse in a wavelike pattern," and this month he is launching a radio station there that the lights will react to. Hubert's goal for 24th Street is simpler. "The new lighting is going to be essentially brighter, so people will be able to have more nighttime events there," he told the paper.
The money came through the Noe Valley Association, the neighborhood's community benefit district and the Town Square's fiscal agent. Avenue Greenlight started in 2020 in response to the pandemic to help businesses citywide by improving commercial corridors. Its board is made up of members and former presidents of merchant groups from around San Francisco. It has previously funded the square's music series and promotion by the Noe Valley Merchants & Professionals Association. "Lighting has been a huge priority for the board because it just improves the aesthetics of an area," Elise Jacobsen, the group's deputy executive director, told the Voice. Jacobsen also said lighting tends to draw people to a neighborhood's commercial corridor at night.
Moira Leslie Crawford, who oversees community events at the square, tied the grant directly to evening programming in her comments to the Noe Valley Voice:
"It seems incredible that we received this really wonderful grant. The space has become so important, and equally important are the lights. To have stage lighting is important for the Noe Valley Night Market and other events."
Saturday's party, and the evenings after it
The anniversary party is also the lights' debut. Crawford described it to the Voice as a four-part celebration:
- the square's tenth birthday
- the 20th anniversary of the Noe Valley Association
- a sendoff for District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who leaves office in early January because of term limits after eight years representing the neighborhood
- the first night of the new lights
The theme is disco. A Rhythm & Motion flash mob opens the evening with Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)." Then CK the DJ plays disco, pop, world and house. There will be drinks, a large cake donated by Noe Valley Bakery, prizes from local merchants, and awards for the best disco outfits. Hubert planned to start installing in early October and finish before the party. As of the Voice's October issue, that was still a target.
After Saturday, the late-October calendar gives the new lights several more evenings to run. These dates come from the Voice's October calendar and noevalleytownsquare.com.
| Date | What | Time | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 23 | The Hot Club of SF plays "Le Jazz Hot" at Noe Music in the Square | 5–6 p.m. | Town Square, 3861 24th St. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | 10 Year Birthday Bash with flash mob and disco dance | 6:30–8 p.m. | Town Square |
| Sun., Oct. 25 | Free Yoga Flow class; bring water and a mat | 11 a.m.–noon | Town Square |
| Sun., Oct. 25 | City Guides walking tour of Noe Valley; register with City Guides | 2 p.m. | Starts at 451 Jersey St. |
| Tue., Oct. 27 | Noe Valley Merchants Night Market | 4:30–8:30 p.m. | Town Square |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Final Friday of the October Noe Music series | 5–6 p.m. | Town Square |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Farmers market | 8 a.m.–1 p.m. | Town Square |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Howl-O-Ween Dog Parade and costume contest | 11 a.m. | Noe Valley Pet Co., 1451 Church, up Comerford Alley to Noe Cafe, 1299 Sanchez |
The Merchants Night Market is the event Crawford named when she talked about stage lighting. The first one after the party runs Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., and much of it will happen after dark.
At Amanda Jones Advisory, we spend a lot of time thinking about how light shapes a room, and a well-lit public square does the same for the blocks around it. If you're a Noe Valley homeowner wondering how changes like this one fit into your long-term plans, book a private consultation and we'll talk it through.
