Glen Park's Tile Trail Isn't Finished Yet, and This Fall You Can Help Design the Next Stop

Glen Park's public mosaics have been moving downhill. The first was a mural at the Burnside Avenue cul-de-sac in 2022. Tiled steps followed at the same spot in 2024, and a tiled bridge over Bosworth Street went up in 2026. The next one is planned for the corner of Bosworth and Diamond, in the middle of the village. Its design is still open: the artist will show a draft at the Glen Park Branch Library on Wednesday, October 21, and anyone who comes can comment on it.

A small volunteer group, Glen Park Beautiful, is behind every one of these projects. Each one started as a conversation between neighbors and then needed weeks of weeding, fundraising and permission before any tile went on a wall.

Where it started, at a dead end

The Burnside mural, titled "Reclaiming Islais Creek," covers a publicly owned retaining wall where the Burnside Avenue cul-de-sac meets Paradise Avenue. Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong of Twin Walls Mural Company finished it in September 2022. It ties neighborhood history to the canyon's plants and wildlife. It also shows the Gum Tree Girls' freeway fight and nods to Islais Creek, which runs beneath the wall.

Two years later, the group added the 69-step Burnside Tiled Steps at the same cul-de-sac. Artists Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher show Islais Creek as blue water running up the risers, with fish, birds, wildflowers and butterflies. The ribbon-cutting and first public viewing took place on October 27, 2024.

For four years, both pieces stayed at that one cul-de-sac. The third project took the tile off the dead end and over a four-lane street that feeds Highway 280.

How a chance meeting on the steps led to a bridge

SFGATE told the story in May. On New Year's Day 2025, community organizer Renee Berger walked from her Glen Park home to the Burnside mural and steps, a project she had led. On the way up she met Glen Park resident Beth O'Leary. The two started talking about the Valkyries and then about Berger's mosaic work, and O'Leary suggested doing something similar at Bosworth and Lippard.

"Doing this bridge had been bubbling in my brain for 20 years," O'Leary told SFGATE. According to the same report, Berger had reached out to a muralist by January 4, and the first plan was simply to paint the pillars. A Glen Park resident joined the effort as well.

The paint idea became tile. SFGATE reports that about a hundred volunteers cut back the overgrowth and washed the concrete before any artwork started. Today the bridge is painted bright blue, and its five pillars carry about 400 square feet of mosaic: soft semicircles beneath yellow stars and orange-rimmed diamonds under thin parallel lines. Artist Ross Holzman's design draws on patterns from around the world to reflect the city's diversity. Glen Park School students worked on it along with the Create Peace Project, a San Francisco arts education nonprofit.

The bridge matters beyond the neighborhood. San Francisco has more than 900 stairways, and about a dozen are tiled. Lincoln Park's California Street steps and the 16th Avenue steps in Golden Gate Heights are among the best known. SFGATE describes the Bosworth Pedestrian Bridge as the city's first tiled crossing. The bridge links Glen Park School on the south side to the Glen Park Greenway on the north, over four lanes of Bosworth that lead straight to Highway 280.

It also brought the mosaics closer to the village. SFGATE puts the Burnside steps two blocks up the Crosstown Trail from the bridge.

The ground under the bridge is still a work in progress

The tile is done, but the landscaping is not. On November 15, 2025, Glen Park School families and staff, neighbors and Glen Park Beautiful volunteers cleared trash, weeds and ivy from the school side and spread mulch. On December 6, 2025, they planted California natives on both sides of the bridge: shade-loving yerba buena underneath it and wild strawberries in the sunnier spots.

The next workday is the 2026 District 8 Beautification Day on Saturday, November 7, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Volunteers will clear the last of the ivy and prepare the ground for a native plant garden under the bridge. The meeting point is Glen Park School at Bosworth Street and Lippard Avenue. Glen Park Beautiful asks people who sign up to enter "Bosworth Team" in the organization field.

The next stop is at the village corner

The fourth project leaves the Crosstown Trail and moves into the commercial district. Glen Park Beautiful is planning a mosaic for the fence at the back of a privately owned patio. In the October meeting notice, the patio's location is given as the corner of Bosworth and Diamond, next to Pono Boutique. The property owners, the Hayes family, are supporting the project, and an Avenue Greenlight grant is paying for it. The group is aiming to install it in spring 2027.

The artist is Dana Albany. Her portfolio is full of community-built pieces, including "Flora," made in 2023 with families at Mission Kids Co-op at 969 Treat Street, and "Portola Petals of Growth," a community mosaic on Felton Street near San Bruno Avenue. At the October 21 community meeting, attendees can meet Albany, see her draft and comment on it. The meeting runs 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Glen Park Branch Library, 2825 Diamond Street, and Glen Park Beautiful asks people to RSVP.

Unlike the earlier projects, this one starts with a public draft. The Burnside and Bosworth mosaics were already designed by the time most of the neighborhood saw them. This time, neighbors can weigh in before the design is final.

Walk the trail before the meeting

The library is turning October 21 into a full afternoon. Its free Glen Park Neighborhood Walk leaves the library at 3:15 p.m. and returns by about 5:30. No registration is required. Library staff lead it, and they describe it as an easy amble with some steep hills and stairs. The walk ends in time for the mural meeting in the library's community room. The route covers the whole sequence:

1. Leave Glen Park Branch Library at 2825 Diamond Street.
2. Walk to Cuvier Commons and cross the San Jose pedestrian bridge.
3. Double back to the Glen Park Greenway, with a stop to learn about the Crosstown Trail.
4. Take a break and an activity at the Burnside mural and tiled steps.
5. Cross the Bosworth Pedestrian Bridge.
6. Return to the library for the 6:30 p.m. mosaic meeting with Dana Albany.

The walk is part of two citywide events. SF Crosstown Trails is hosting the first Walktober this October. The Civic Joy Fund hosts SF Stairway Month, which Glen Park Beautiful organizes with Crosstown Trails, San Francisco City Guides and Bird & Beckett as partners. So the Glen Park group that builds the mosaics is also running the citywide stairway celebration.

The stairway calendar through early November

These dates are still ahead as of October 13:

• Sunday, October 18. San Francisco City Guides leads a walk up the Filbert and Greenwich Steps.
• Wednesday, October 21. The library's Glen Park walk at 3 p.m., followed by the patio mosaic meeting at 6:30 p.m.
• Saturday, October 24. The third annual "Truly Terrific: Tiled to Tiled Stairway Walk," with an 8-mile route that starts at the Lincoln Steps and a 5.5-mile option.
• Tuesday, October 27, 7 p.m. The Stairway Month finale at Bird & Beckett, 653 Chenery Street: "All About San Francisco's Stairways: No Walking Required!" Mary Burk, an author of Stairway Walks in San Francisco, and Alexandra Kenin will be there, and Kenin will share her detailed map of the city's stairways.
• Saturday, November 7, 9:30 a.m. The District 8 Beautification Day ivy pull under the Bosworth Pedestrian Bridge.

Event organizers can change their calendars, so check each listing before you go.

Neighborhood projects like these shape how a block feels, and that is part of how our team thinks about Glen Park. If you would like to talk about how its streets and corners are changing, Colleen Cotter can walk through it with you. Request a complimentary market consultation.