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On the way home from the Chinese New Years Parade (2-19) I decide to stop off at the Marin Headlands for a final reflective view of the City as we begin the Year of the Rabbit. It is midnight and the almost-full waning moon is straight overhead adding it's illumination to the scene. The air is clear and fresh after the week's rains. How amazing to be up there all alone with this magnificent view of the glittering metropolis and deep starry night.
We've been living with these beautiful Beatles/iTunes billboards for over three months now and I still get a warm feeling every time I see them - especially at dusk. This one tops Rincon Hill at the entry ramp to the eastbound lanes of the Bay Bridge. click to enlarge
"Cupid's Span" in Rincon Park,- by Claes Oldenburg and the Coosje Van Bruggen
Here is a piece on the San Francisco waterfront to celebrate Valentine's Day. It is whimsical and romantic, but resonates with the industrial strength of the Bay Bridge and passing ships.
Street Art on Natoma Street amidst the rubble of the old Transit Terminal bus ramps.
Looking NE across Natoma Street to the site where the old Transbay Transit Terminal on First and Mission is being deconstructed to make way for the new five story Transbay Transit Center scheduled to open in 2015.
As I approach the active demolition zone of the old Transbay Transit terminal on First and Mission, I am thinking of the massive crowds now assembled in Tahrir Square, Cairo. The Egyptian people have roared to life with an extraordinary revolutionary energy and are demanding the ouster of their longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. I've been listening to the electrically charged story all day on the car radio and it is not clear what will happen next.
I make my way over the rubble of the old bus ramps and watch the last walls of the terminal, built in 1939, being smashed apart by a wrecking ball and clawed down piece by piece by the teeth of two huge diesel powered shovels. I look at this crumbling structure designed by star architect Timothy Pflueger (completed in 1939) and it forms an immediate symbolic link with the events in Egypt. Old walls and outdated structures are coming down.
Looking east down Minna Street toward the last remnants of the old Transbay Transit Terminal. This was the western end of the linear structure where large curving bus ramps entered the complex.
Looking west along Minna Street
Tearing Down the Walls
I reflect on this symbolism and look up to find two strange and alluring pieces of street art that carry the theme even further. The first is a stenciled image right on the quaking terminal wall now being demolished. It features the image of a young woman partially hidden behind a bandana proclaiming "This ain't no smash and grab. This is a Revolution!" The second image features the calm countenance of the Buddha(s), "embellished" with chaotic graffiti and looking shockingly beautiful in the late afternoon light. The world is so mysterious.
click images for full view
The drydocks at the outer edge of Potrero Point on San Francisco's southeast waterfront.
The Potrero Point area, and present site of Pier 70, has long fascinated me. Centered along 20th Street at Illinois, the site holds the most extraordinary example of a historic industrial village still intact on the West Coast. The area has been in regular industrial use since the 1860s and was the home of the truly epic Union Iron Works. Now the site is dominated by massive, Italian built, luxury cruiseliner Carnival Splendor.
Abandoned building in the former UIW complex.
Union Iron Works was founded in 1849 at First and Mission Streets in the south-of-Market area. After years as California's premier producer of mining, railroad, agricultural, and locomotive equipment, UIW entered the shipbuilding market with mythic power and intensity. In 1885, they launched the first steel hulled ship in the West. In 1886, UIW was awarded a 1 million dollar contract from the Navy to build the cruiser Charleston which they completed in 18 months. They went on to build another 75 steel ships by 1902, including the two most famous vessels in the Spanish American War, the Olympia and the Oregon. America was now projecting it's rising strength throughout the Pacific.
Looking across to the inner northern edge of the Potrero Point complex long occupied by the Union Iron Works and successors. A group of patrons from The Ramp, a well known, much loved restaurant and bar, enjoy the bayside industrial atmosphere at a table directly across from the old UIW ship launching ramps.
Thousands of men worked in these yards and millions of dollars flowed into San Francisco from the maritime industry in the period before 1908. Now core of the 40 acre site is largely abandoned, with ongoing activity focused on the outlying drydocks operated by BAE Systems. This is where we are today and there is a vibrant energy in the air surrounding Pier 70.
Looking out toward the BEA drydocks near The Ramp.
As we approach the site we spot the giant bulk of the 952-foot-long Carnival Splendor. She was towed into drydock on January 23 after limping up the coast from San Diego. We make our way past "the Ramp" waterfront bar and restaurant to have a closer look. The enormous cruise ship made worldwide news last November when it was disabled by a serious engine room fire off the Mexican Coast. Thousands of passengers were stranded for days without power while they floated helplessly off the coast of Baja.
The repair job will take about three weeks and will have a price tag of $8-9 million. It is San Francisco's biggest maritime engineering project in 45 years and will employ more than 900 workers in 22 different crafts.
This San Francisco drydock is the only facility on the West Coast of North America big enough to handle a ship this size. The Splendor has 14 decks and can carry more than 3,700 passengers. It is longer than a battleship and larger than the Titanic. The damaged engines are below the water line and repairs will necessitate cutting through the hull for access. That type of work requires giant tracking cranes and a massive dry dock.
As we stand in the warm sunshine and fresh Bay air I feel the historic industrial power of the City resurging into action for a new heroic maritime effort. Fishermen at the nearby dock tell us the herring have arrived in force, and they are overflowing with a feeling of excited abundance. Now the regional maritime workers are feeling the same buzz a few hundred yards away at Pier 70.
"Hollywood", a charismatic, retired construction worker tells us about the massive herring runs that overflowed the fishermen's capacity here over the last few days. There is a lull now but huge schools are presently being tracked off the Bay Bridge.
