San Francisco Neighborhoods · Diamond Heights
Diamond Heights
also Red Rock HillFog zoneHilltop calm with knockout views — a planned mid-century enclave wrapped in open space, where curving streets and modern homes look out over the whole city.
- Sweeping skyline views
- Glen Canyon Park next door
- Mid-century modern homes
- Quiet, planned streets
On the map
Open Diamond Heights on the map →The story
One of San Francisco's redevelopment-era projects. The steep, rocky "Red Rock" hills above Glen Canyon sat largely undeveloped for decades, too rugged to build on cheaply. In the late 1950s and 1960s the SF Redevelopment Agency carved curving streets into the slopes and built Diamond Heights as a planned mid-century community of homes, condos, and townhouses, anchored by a new shopping center. It takes its name from nearby Diamond Street below.
Things most people don’t know
A planned community
Diamond Heights was master-planned by the SF Redevelopment Agency in the late 1950s–60s — one of the few city neighborhoods designed largely from scratch, with curving streets that follow the hillside contours.
Views in every direction
Built high on the slopes near Twin Peaks, homes here capture sweeping panoramas of downtown, the bay, and the surrounding hills.
Glen Canyon Park
On the western edge, this rugged park preserves Islais Creek, dramatic rock outcrops, and trails through one of the city's last natural canyons.
Mid-century by design
The housing stock skews modern — 1960s-era homes, townhouses, and condos reflecting the redevelopment era rather than the Victorians common elsewhere in SF.
Wildlife in the canyon
Glen Canyon's wild slopes draw red-tailed hawks, great horned owls, and coyotes — a pocket of nature minutes from the shopping center.
Eating and drinking near Diamond Heights
Diamond Heights is primarily residential — these sit in Glen Park, Noe Valley.
Restaurants
- Fiorella Noe · 4042 24th St
- Novy · 4000 24th St
- Fresca · 3945 24th St
- Noe Indian Cuisine · 4116 24th St
Bars
- Glen Park Station · 2816 Diamond St
- The Valley Tavern · 4054 24th St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. Muni 35 Eureka, 36 Teresita, and 52 Excelsior serve the hilltop; Glen Park BART/Muni station is a short ride downhill.
Nearest hospital. CPMC Mission Bernal Campus, 3555 Cesar Chavez St (about 2 mi)
Thinking about Diamond Heights?
Send me an address and I will come back with its sun, wind and fog, what is under it, and what has closed on the block.