remediation and redemption Hunters Point Power Plant jonathan manzo , urb - in
When infrastructural systems put in place in the early twentieth century have reached the end of their operational lives, new methodologies must be devised to decommission the existing systems and conceptualise how new systems and facilities should be designed, built and operated. Hunters Point Site demonstrates a new attitude towards infrastructure, containing many moving parts and projects. At first glance, it is a straight brownfield remediation story; close up it is a complicated and nuanced narrative.
background The former PG&E Hunters Point power plant was located in the Bayview-Hunters Point district of San Francisco. The power plant operated for 77 years (1929-2006). The district is known for its large tightly-knit African American community, and as the most diverse district in San Francisco, with a higher proportion of recent immigrants and Latino and Asian residents than the rest of the city. In addition to residential neighbourhoods, Bayview-Hunters Point has traditionally been characterised by industrial uses, from food production to shipbuilding to power generation. It is the former home of San Francisco Naval Shipyard (1940-1994), a sprawling 866-acre facility which functioned as a dry dock and repair facility for the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet. At its peak in 1945, United States Navy was the largest employer with a labour force of 18,235. 1 The post-war era brought significant changes to US cities, and to San Francisco and the Bayview-Hunters Point specifically. At the national scale, there was a massive shift away from legacy cities to newly built and often segregated suburban enclaves, as home ownership was made attainable through government-backed mortgage programs and the benefits available to returning soldiers. Unfortunately, many returning African American GIs were denied access to these benefits through systemic and discriminatory practices, such as redlining. The postwar period was also characterised by deindustrialisation. Activity at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard dropped significantly in the immediate postwar years as demand for ship repair diminished and the military realigned from a war in multiple theatres to the relative stalemate of the Cold War. The San Francisco Naval Shipyard scaled down operations in 1974, was declared a Superfund 2 site in 1989 and finally closed in 1994. The district experienced a long slow decline as well-paying jobs left and opportunities for social advancement were limited. What remained were communities impacted by an exclusionary social order and a legacy of industrial practices that bore significant environmental and health impacts.
Golden Gate
Oakland
San Francisco Bay
Hunters Point
southern city limit
1 During World War II, the Naval Shipyard’s labour force increased from 8,024 in 1943 to 18,235 in August 1945 2 a US federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of toxic wastes.
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on site review 41 :: infrastructure
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