At San Francisco’s Pier 70, everything that’s old is new again
Strange though it may sound, San Francisco’s future is on view at long-moribund Pier 70, where buildings once filled with ironworkers sat empty for decades.
Newly restored industrial landmarks along 20th Street are filling up with employees of companies that for the most part didn’t exist a decade ago. Behind them, construction workers are laying the groundwork — literally — for a 28-acre project that will pair old and new buildings along with 9 acres of plazas and parks.
Purely in terms of historic preservation, the rebirth of Pier 70 already is an architectural triumph. The planned buildings and plazas hold promise of becoming the city’s next bayside attraction.
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Several dilapidated structures at this end of Pier 70 were torn down this year. The concrete warehouse will be converted into apartments, while the fabrication shop — closer to the bay — will be jacked up 10 feet to match its new surroundings.
The elevated landscape sets the stage for Brookfield’s first phase. In addition to the new and restored structures, Slipways Commons will be a 3-acre park extending in from the water. It will be flanked by a new six-story apartment building on the south, designed by Kennerly Architecture, and the to-be-restored World War II structures on the west.
“Pier 70 isn’t about one thing. It’s this collection of spaces and multiple scales,” said Richard Kennedy of James Corner Field Operations, landscape architect for the Brookfield project. “We want what emerges to be tough but lovable.”
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View the full article: At San Francisco’s Pier 70, everything that’s old is new again, which appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle on March 18, 2019.
John King is The San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron