Pier 70 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, is a historic pier in San Francisco's

Potrero Point Potrero Point is an area in San Francisco, California, east of San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood. Potrero Point was an early San Francisco industrial area. The Point started as small natural land feature that extends into Mission Bay ...

neighborhood, home to the

Union Iron Works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. ...

and later to

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works. In 1917 it was incorporated as Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co ...

. It was one of the largest industrial sites in San Francisco during the two World Wars. Today, it is regarded as the best-preserved 19th century industrial complex west of the Mississippi.

Physical plant

The pier is in size.

History

The area around Pier 70 has been used for shipbuilding since the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

. Since becoming home to the Union Iron Works in 1883, Pier 70 has been occupied by a variety of industrial concerns, including the

Pacific Rolling Mills The Pacific Rolling Mill Company was the West’s first iron and steel producing foundry, founded in 1866, in San Francisco, California. (The company was also known as Pacific Rolling Mills and the two names were used interchangeably throughout its ...

, Risdon Iron & Locomotive,

Kneass Boat Works Kneass Boat Works was a shipbuilding company in San Francisco, California. To support the World War 2 demand for ships, Kneass Boat Works built: US Navy Sub chasers, US Army barges and tugboats. Kneass Boat Works was started by California nati ...

, and

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

. After Bethlehem acquired Union Iron Works in 1905, the pier also housed Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's administrative offices in Building 101.WATERFRONT / Developers face pier pressure / Pier 70 poses complex land-use problems, visions
/ref> Bethlehem Steel sold their holdings in the area to the Port of SF in 1980. In the 1990s, the Eureka Dry Dock, former USS Steadfast (AFDM-14), was acquired by the BAE Systems and are now still in use at the Pier.

Current state and development

As of Jan 3, 2017, the facility is operated by Puglia Engineering, Inc, who operate 2 other ship repair facilities in Washington State. Puglia Engineering purchased the facility from

BAE Systems Ship Repair BAE Systems Platforms & Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems Inc. and is a large provider of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles, naval guns, naval ship repair and modernization, artillery and missile launching systems, ad ...

in January, 2017. The two dry docks were formerly operated by BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair, employing approximately 200 people. Most of the pier's buildings have been unoccupied since the decline of shipbuilding in the area. However, some of the pier's historic buildings are still used, one is used for artist studios. In 2015, the

Port of San Francisco The Port of San Francisco is a semi-independent organization that oversees the port facilities at San Francisco, California, United States. It is run by a five-member commission, appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Board of Supervisors. Th ...

started planning to redevelop the pier for mixed commercial and residential use in partnership with Orton Development, Inc. and Forest City Development. The redevelopment was expected to include roughly a thousand housing units and two million square feet of office space. In 2013, plans included a "Crane Cove Park" that would feature the historic cranes in the northern part of the pier complex. A $120 million restoration and rehabilitation effort for the eight buildings in the pier's historic core began in 2015 and is expected to complete in 2017. Several of the buildings are used as a large-scale event venue operated by Pier 70 Partners.

Historic buildings

Potrero Point is eligible for the National Register as a historic district for its contribution to three war efforts (Spanish–American War, World War I & World War II) and because of the 19th-century buildings that remain. Some of the buildings are individually eligible for landmarking for their architectural and historic merit. Worthy of historical landmark status is the 1917 Frederick Meyer Renaissance Revival Bethlehem office building, the Charles P. Weeks designed 1912 Power House#1, the 1896 Union Iron Works office designed by Percy & Hamilton, and the huge 1885 Machine shops.

References

{{reflist

External links

History of Pier 70
includin
Port of San Francisco Pier 70 Information PagePier 70 : Curbed SF
Landmarks in San Francisco