Forever Balboa Park

Forever Balboa Park is a private nonprofit conservancy in San Diego whose primary mission is to improve and advance Balboa Park, one of the country’s largest urban cultural parks, so people, nature, and culture thrive together. Through a special agreement with the City of San Diego, Forever Balboa Park recruits, trains, and deploys hundreds of volunteers to care for
Balboa Park’s gardens and landscaping, plant trees, and monitor and maintain the urban forest. We also lead efforts to restore and rehabilitate the Park’s public gardens and its 60-mile trail network. In addition, Forever Balboa Park stewards and operates historic buildings and attractions in the Park, including the House of Hospitality, Botanical Building and Central Gardens, and Balboa Park Carousel. Our visitor services team, powered by hundreds of highly trained volunteers, provides seven-day-a-week customer service, welcoming and assisting visitors at the Balboa Park Visitors Center, Botanical Building, and satellite information kiosks. Our collaborative efforts with the City and other park entities ensure that Balboa Park continues to make its vital resources accessible to all members of San Diego’s diverse communities while showcasing the best that San Diego has to offer to millions of park visitors annually.

Mindful of its designation as a National Historic Landmark and as stewards of this remarkable cultural landscape, Forever Balboa Park also honors the Park’s rich design legacy. Much of Balboa Park’s early landscape vision traces to Samuel Parsons, Jr.’s 1902 master plan, which was strongly influenced by the landscape philosophies of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the renowned designers of New York’s Central Park. Today, the Park’s primary roadway network remains rooted in Parsons’ original plan, while the West Mesa continues to reflect the pastoral character that defined the Olmsted tradition.