The dedicated group selected de Laveaga Dell in world-renowned Golden Gate Park, near the park's tennis courts, as the site for the Grove. Due to park budget cuts and lack of funding, the Dell was in a state of disrepair, overgrown and unusable by the public. A team of prominent architects, landscape architects, and designers volunteered countless hours to create a landscape plan that would be fitting as a timeless living memorial. Site renovation began in September 1991 and is still in progress. The Grove's board of directors obtained a 99-year renewable lease with the City of San Francisco to create and maintain the Grove.
City officials praise the project as the perfect example of a public-private partnership.
The Grove has become a model project for like-minded groups throughout the country. In October 1996, a historic milestone was reached when Congress and the President of the United States approved the National AIDS Memorial Grove Act. This official designation as the National AIDS Memorial Grove, a status comparable to that of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Mount Rushmore, and the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, proclaims to the world that there is now a dedicated space in the national public landscape where anyone who has been touched by AIDS can grieve openly without being stigmatized, find comfort among others whose lives have been affected by AIDS and HIV, and experience the feelings of renewal and hope inherent in nature. As the AIDS pandemic continues to invade humanity in unprecedented numbers, the establishment of the Grove as the national gathering place for healing, hope, and remembrance also serves as an important marker in the history of this dreadful disease. Site Revitalization Community response is the heart of the Grove.