Urban Reinventions: San Francisco’s Treasure Island

290 Pages·2017·20.09 MB·English

by  Lynne Horiuchi

URBAN
REINVENTIONS

URBAN
REINVENTIONS
San Francisco’s
Treasure Island
Edited by
Lynne Horiuchi and Tanu Sankalia
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
This publication is made possible in part by the University of San Francisco,
College of Arts and Sciences, Faculty Development Fund.
© 2017 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Horiuchi, Lynne, editor. | Sankalia, Tanu, editor.
Title: Urban reinventions : San Francisco’s Treasure Island / edited by
Lynne Horiuchi and Tanu Sankalia.
Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016058320 | ISBN 9780824866020 (cloth ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Treasure Island (San Francisco, Calif.)—History.
Classification: LCC F869.S36 U73 2017 | DDC 979.4/61—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058320
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Nord Compo
Jacket photo: View of San Francisco Bay, Treasure Island, and San Francisco from
the Berkeley Hills. Courtesy of Sudhish Mohindroo.
Contents
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .VII
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .XIII
Introduction
1. Urban Reinventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
LYNNE HORIUCHI AND TANU SANKALIA
2. The Island at the Center of the Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
RICHARD A . WALKER
Part I
Treasure Island, an Airport, and the Golden Gate
International Exposition
3. How to Celebrate a Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
ANDREW M . SHANKEN
4. Visions of Progress and Peace: Foreign Architectural
Representations at the Century of Progress and Golden Gate
International Expositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
LISA D . SCHRENK
5. A Local Global Utopia: The Japan Pavilion at the Golden Gate
International Exposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
LYNNE HORIUCHI
Part II
Naval Station Treasure Island and Military
Occupation
6. Trial by the Bay: Treasure Island and Segregation
in the Navy’s Lake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
JAVIER ARBONA
VI CONTENTS
7. Pandemonium on the Bay: Naval Station Treasure Island
and the Toxic Legacies of Atomic Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
LINDSEY DILLON
8. Visions for Reuse: The Legacy of the Bay Area’s
Military Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
MARK L . GILLEM
Part III
The Treasure Island–Yerba Buena Island
Development Project
9. Visions of an Island Ecotopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
TANU SANKALIA
10. Magic City 2 .0: Articulations of Soil, Law, and Capital
on Treasure Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
JOHN STEHLIN
11. Groundwork: (De)Touring Treasure Island’s Toxic History . . . . . . . .229
C . GREIG CRYSLER
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
Illustrations
Figure 1.1 Treasure Island appears like a floating platform.
Figure 1.2 The western edge of the low-lying Treasure Island in 2012.
Figure 1.3 Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, 1939.
Figure 1.4 Master plan for Treasure Island Airport, 1941.
Figure 1.5 “Tierra Nueva” under construction, 1936.
Figure 1.6 Montage view of a design for the “Magic City,” 1935.
Figure 1.7 Site plan of the Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939.
Figure 1.8 Cinematically lit, eighty-foot statue Pacifica by Ralph Stackpole, 1939.
Figure 1.9 A night shot of the Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939.
Figure 1.10 Maps illustrating the GGIE as part of the Pacific Rim and road networks, 1939.
Figure 1.11 “Native Means of Transportation,” 1939.
Figure 1.12 Aerial photograph of Naval Station Treasure Island in the 1940s.
Figure 1.13 Comparative illustration of the sizes of naval bases in 1985.
Figure 1.14 Victory Day celebrations on Naval Station Treasure Island, 1945.
Figure 1.15 Construction of embarkation facilities, 1944.
Figure 1.16 Master plan showing Treasure Island, 1966.
Figure 1.17 Master plan showing Yerba Buena Island, 1966.
Figure 1.18 Overlapping sites, 1965.
Figure 1.19 Magic City 2.0, 2005.
Figure 1.20 Model of proposed development, 2005.
Figure 1.21 Rendering from the Treasure Island–Yerba Buena Island Development Project,
2005.
Figure 1.22 Map of Treasure Island showing “newly identified radiologically impacted areas,”
2012.
Figure 2.1 Aerial drawing of Golden Gate International Exposition at Treasure Island, 1935.
Figure 2.2 Berkeley landfill, 1987.
Figure 2.3 San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge under construction, 1933–1936.
Figure 2.4 Douglas Skyhawk, 2015.
Figure 2.5 Bay Area housing starts, 2000–2010.
Figure 2.6 Sea-level rise around San Francisco Bay, 2015.
Figure 3.1 Cover of San Francisco Business, 1927.
Figure 3.2 Map of proposed airport near China Basin, 1930.
Figure 3.3 Proposed airport site, December 1932.
Figure 3.4 Construction of perimeter wall and first building foundation, 1936.
Figure 3.5 Boy on pipe discharging sand, 1936.
Figure 3.6 Laying pipes on the emerging island, 1936–1937.
Figure 3.7 Diagram of well-point drainage to leach sandy soil, 1938.
Figure 3.8 Mature trees barged in to Treasure Island, 1938.
Figure 3.9 Major public works in the Bay Area in the early twentieth century, 1937.
Figure 4.1 Poble Espanyol at the 1929 Exposició internacional in Barcelona.
Figure 4.2 Italian Pavilion at A Century of Progress Fair, Chicago, 1933.
Figure 4.3 Poster of the 1934 Century of Progress Fair.
Figure 4.4 Chinese Bendix Lama Temple, Chicago, 1933.
VIII ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 4.5 Aerial view of the Golden Gate International Exposition, 1933.
Figure 4.6 Statue Pacifica at the GGIE, 1939–1940.
Figure 4.7 GGIE plan, January 1937.
Figure 4.8 GGIE plan, May 1937.
Figure 4.9 United States Pavilion building, 1939–1940.
Figure 4.10 Pacific Area rendering by Arthur Brown Jr., 1937.
Figure 4.11 Pacific House and Asian pavilions, 1939.
Figure 4.12 Central and South American buildings, 1938.
Figure 4.13 Brazil Pavilion at the GGIE, 1939.
Figure 5.1 Southern elevation of the Japan Pavilion, 1939.
Figure 5.2 Northern and western elevations of the Japan Pavilion, 1939.
Figure 5.3 Japan Pavilion garden, 1939.
Figure 5.4 “Ground Plan,” circa 1938.
Figure 5.5 Travel Hall fountain and map, 1939.
Figure 5.6 Travel Hall fountain and statues, 1939.
Figure 5.7 Program cover for the 1940 Takarazuka Revue GGIE performance.
Figure 5.8 Celebrating Japan Day, May 1, 1939.
Figure 5.9 Japanese American Nisei women, 1939.
Figure 5.10 Destruction of the Japan Pavilion, April 8, 1941.
Figure 6.1 Segregated barracks, 1944.
Figure 6.2 Loading ammunition onto a train car.
Figure 6.3 Port Chicago court-martial, October 1944.
Figure 7.1 Naval Station Treasure Island students learn techniques of radiological detection,
1968.
Figure 7.2 Map of Yerba Buena and Treasure Island Naval Stations.
Figure 7.3 “The Bikini Blowup,” 1946.
Figure 7.4 “U.S.–Marshall Island Relations,” 1948.
Figure 7.5 Mock A-Bomb in San Francisco Bay, 1959.
Figure 8.1 Fenced-off area with radioactive contamination, 2014.
Figure 8.2 Bay Area’s military landscape.
Figure 8.3 Diagram showing Fort Mason, circa 1876.
Figure 8.4 Plan for reuse of Concord Naval Weapons Station, 2008.
Figure 8.5 Oak Knoll master plan, 2006.
Figure 8.6 Hangar 1 at Moffett Field, 1933.
Figure 8.7 Northwestern tip of the Presidio abuts the Golden Gate Bridge.
Figure 8.8 Fort Baker showing the parade ground, circa 1925.
Figure 9.1 Model of Treasure Island–Yerba Buena Island Development Project, 2005.
Figure 9.2 Illustrative plan of Treasure Island–Yerba Buena Island Development Project, 2005.
Figure 9.3 Naval Station Treasure Island reuse plan, 1996.
Figure 9.4 Illustrative reuse plan, 1997.
Figure 9.5 Illustrative plan, 2002 proposal for development.
Figure 9.6 Changes to 2002 proposal for development, 2004.
Figure 9.7 Revised proposal for development, 2004.
Figure 9.8 TIDP promotional material, 2005.
Figure 9.9 Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2009.
Figure 10.1 Geotech plan, 1996.
Figure 10.2 Geotech table, 1996.