A tipster delivers a photo of the four alarm fire in progress at Pier 29, one of the key piers upon which the America’s Cup Village venue is being constructed.
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A tipster delivers a photo of the four alarm fire in progress at Pier 29, one of the key piers upon which the America’s Cup Village venue is being constructed.
Comments are closed.
Oh darn! So much for the historic preservation lawsuits…
Who, I say who, will they find to finance the reconstruction?!?!
Larrrrrry!
A landmark has been gutted by fire. This will disfigure the Embarcadero for a while. Very sad.
Funny, I saw Peskin and Hestor running away from the area at around 1:30pm.
And let the conspiracy theories begin.
1. Larry burned it down to spite San Francisco;
2. The Anti-AC group torched the place to eliminate any chance that San Francisco would have the needed facilities.
3. The group fighting against 8 Washington did it – I don’t know why, but they might have.
4. The people that caused the BART fire still had a few spare matchs.
5. All those newly-minted FB/ZNGA millionaires with money to burn finally did…
I find your theories lacking.
The AC people did it so that they could gut the place and build whatever they wanted.
Sorry America’s Cup fans…….Ellison can’t fix this one as Larry just purchased the Hawaiin island of Lanai from another billionaire, so he may be short of cash for a week or two.
Fires are always depressing and scary.
That aside, this one shows how this vaunted SF landmark (like so many others) is merely stage-set architecture: crafted from stucco and sticks to look like stone. Pretty lame.
Rebuild it as an exquisite steel portal & pavilion worthy of gustav eiffel.
R_C:
One issue is that when the Eiffel Tower was built, the locals ridiculed it as an eyesore. I suspect any attempt to create a new Pier 29 in San Francisco that is worthy of Gustav Eiffel’s legacy would be met with the same level of protest. I don’t think many of the images that are mainstays of “San Francisco” could be built today – think Golden Gate park, Coit Tower, the curves of Lombard street.
The NIMBYs can’t see past their noses and will file endless protests.
How did the Telegraph Hill Dwellers ever let them have a fire without spending three years doing an EIR?
I kind of agree with rubber_chicken. These pier buildings are stage sets…there is nothing distinctive at all beyond the entrances. Sad to say, but it is probably not such a tragedy, and certainly not irreplaceable, and actually opens up possiblities, as the bad thing about these pier entrances is how they block off views of the water…a reimagined structure could be more permeable.
A great contrast to the previous thread on St. Paulus, which would be impossible to recreate now.
I totally agree with Jim. This fire should be Appealed!
I think that smoke is definitely casting a shadow….
I agree with rubber_chicken and curmudgeon. This definitely has an upside, just as earthquakes have an upside in pushing us to rebuild and renew in different ways. The California Academy of Sciences is one such building … a required renewal after the Loma Prieta earthquake. Not to mention the renewal of the Embarcadero after the elevated roadway came down. It ain’t all bad.
Isn’t anyone concerned that the preservation committee and Telegraph Hill Busybees will demand that the facade be replicated exactly as it was?
Concerned? I consider it a foregone conclusion.
“The fire destroyed the warehouse’s Neoclassical archway but spared the pier itself, Talmadge said. Also unaffected was the adjacent Pier 27, which is being converted into a cruise ship terminal, she said.
Pier 29 is supposed to house food concessions during next year’s America’s Cup yacht races. Cup organizers said the fire would not affect that plan.
Executive Director Monique Moyer of the Port of San Francisco, which owns the pier, said she hoped the facade of the 1915 building could be re-created.”
I’m having a hard time believing this won’t affect plans for the AC buildout.
Okay, I’ve had a really rough week — drowning in a monster workload. I’m glad I didn’t take a swig of my coffee when I read this thread just now — I would’ve been pretty mad if I spit my coffee all over my keyboard and computer AND wasted my coffee on top of that.
These comments made my day, lol! Cheers! 🙂
Any rebuilding will have to be done using the same rotten wood. THD suggests salvaging wood from the Pagoda Theater which has a close enough seagull/pigeon feces patina that makes this place so special.
Any updates on this? Would love to know how the fire started and what the status is on the rebuild?
>I find your theories lacking.
>The AC people did it so that they could gut the place and build whatever they wanted.
Exactly.
UPDATE: A $225,000 America’s Cup Settlement That’s For The Birds.