potrero view

September 2009

The Port of San Francisco Works to Preserve Pier 70’s Historic Resources

By Mike Stillman

A collection of dilapidated but historically significant buildings populate Pier 70, a 65-acre parcel that stretches from Illinois Street to the bay. The pier stands alongside Treasure Island and the Hunters Point Shipyard as one of the last remaining sites for large scale development in the City. If all goes according to the Port of San Francisco’s plans, over the next decade the buildings will be renovated as part of a new mixed use neighborhood.

The port, which has owned the land and the buildings on Pier 70 since 1982, when they bought the site from Bethlehem Steel for one dollar, wants to see the buildings restored, a vision shared by preservationists and Dogpatch residents. But all that can be said with any certainty about the buildings’ future is that time is running out.  “There’s a huge sense of urgency… to save these buildings,” said David Beaupre, the port’s senior waterfront planner. “I feel like we’re fortunate that [the buildings are] still standing, and that if we don’t do something quickly, we’re gonna lose some national treasures,” he said.

The site has generated interest from developers in the past, but previous attempts at redevelopment fell through due to high project costs.  The port doesn’t have the money for renovations, and has been working to piece together a mix of public and private sector funding resources.  Proposition D, which passed in November 2008, and Assembly Bill 1176, currently pending approval in the California Legislature, have the potential to cover $200 million of the estimated $350 million in renovation costs. 

With the help of Carey & Company, the port has begun the process of nominating Pier 70 for the National Register of Historic Places. Once the pier is added to the Register, project developers will receive a tax credit equal to 20 percent of the costs they incur renovating the buildings. The port plans to release a request for qualifications, the first step in lining up a developer, by the end of the year.

For more than a century Pier 70 was home to the Union Iron Works shipyard, later operated by Bethlehem steel.  The company employed thousands of skilled workers – many of whom lived in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill – who built more than 500 vessels, including the first steel hulled ship on the Pacific Coast, early submarine models, and a variety of naval warships.   After World War II, ship building slowed down, and the pier was used for ship conversion and repair projects. BAE systems still repairs ships at the site, but over the years the pier’s massive structures have gradually been vacated and left to deteriorate.

“The Pier 70 area is one of the most important historical sites on the West Coast,” said local historian Ralph Wilson, a software designer who maintains the website, www.pier70sf.org. “It includes many significant structures that represent almost the whole history of American industrial development up to the second world war.”  Noted architects designed some of the huge warehouses and ornate office buildings that are spread throughout the pier. Other buildings were constructed rapidly to keep up with the pace of wartime production. The pier’s oldest buildings date to the late 1800s. These boarded-up artifacts of San Francisco’s industrial past exemplify rare styles of architecture, and are an important piece of the City’s labor history.

Pier redevelopment will likely transform Dogpatch, which is already being buffeted from development waves created by the University of California, San Francisco’s, Mission Bay campus. Most of the pier’s historical buildings will be converted into office space, light industry, and other commercial purposes.  According to Mark Paez, a port planner, these types of uses will generate the lease payments needed to cover renovation costs. There are plans to set aside at least one of the buildings for public use. The development will also provide bay access and nine acres of open space, which will be dispersed throughout Pier 70.

According to Susan Eslick, vice president of The Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, “businesses in Dogpatch will benefit from a preserved and enhanced Pier 70. This will become a destination for visitors from all over.” Eslick sees the buildings as an essential part of a rejuvenated site. “The workers at Union Iron works lived in Dogpatch and therefore both historic places support each other… if [the buildings] were not saved Dogpatch would lose it’s left hand, it’s foundation…Dogpatch would be somewhat taken out of context.”

The port has classified the buildings as Very Significant, Significant, Context, and Non-contributing Resources. The Pier 70 Master Plan calls for the rehabilitation of all Very Significant and Significant resources, a total of twenty-one buildings, with removal of any of these structures only allowed under “extraordinary circumstances.”  Some of the Context and Non-Contributing Resources will have to be demolished to make way for new development.

Using the port’s numerical classifications, historian Ralph Wilson said Building 113, The Union Iron Works Machine Shop, is the most historically significant, and his personal favorite. Beaupre agreed, “When there’s an earthquake the first thing I think about is where my daughter and my wife are, and the second thing I think about is, is Building 113 still standing?”  

Constructed in 1886, Building 113 is the site’s oldest structure.  Large steel sash windows and an immense, open interior give the 450 foot long brick building a cathedral like feel. From Illinois Street the building’s gable can be seen towering above the pier’s smaller structures.  Renovation costs for this building alone could exceed $50 million.  According to Beaupre, Building 113 will most likely be used as public space, possibly a center for the arts or an open air European style market.  Building 113, “really is the single most important building on the site,” said Paez, “yet it’s really deteriorated and every year that goes by, we worry more about what might happen if there is another earth quake or a big storm.”

 

 
 
 
 

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