I heard there might be some questions as to why half of Dolores Park currently resembles an ant hill.

Dolores Park is in phase two of a three phase reconstruction project. (Commenter Paul below disagrees with this description — Dolores Park is actually in the 1st phase of the 2nd construction project.) Here is a beautiful rendering of what Dolores Park will look like sometime in late 2015 (fingers crossed).

The first phase consisted of updating the playground, Hellen Diller Playground. That was a 9-month project that finished in March 2012.

The second phase, mostly the northern half of the park, started in March 2014 (that’s what you’re seeing now) to make way for topographical changes, new paths, new bathrooms, new tennis and basketball courts, and new multi-use recreation courts. This is currently scheduled for completion in early 2015.

After that, they’ll close the middle part of the park (estimated for only a month(?!)) to connect the current dead-end path near the playground to the new paths.

Then, sorry to say, they’re shutting down the southern end of the park, aka the beach and dog park, for 6-9 months, with completion slated for the end of 2015. Heavy sighs all around.

Be strong; we’ll get through it.