A Preservation Landscape for Hunter’s Point Radiological Laboratory, San Francisco

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, a decommissioned complex located on the eastern portion of the San Francisco peninsula, was long used as a support facility for the US Navy’s nuclear testing program. After decades of handling and testing radioactive materials, much of this collection of buildings and grounds was rendered unusable. This project envisions that portions of the site will be reoccupied by using uncontaminated buildings and leaving the rest to fall to ruin. The site would continue to harbor an artist community that has long occupied the site, along with industrial shop space, art studios and a car crash testing facility. Once refurbished, safe areas would take on programs as contaminated areas would remain untouched, set aside as decaying traces of their earlier use. A system of concrete walls and moats would make contaminated areas inaccessible, using “safety offset distances” that are typical to hazardous material handling.