Jon Crispin's Notebook

Due to a remarkable set of circumstances I was invited to stay at the home of Toby and Jerry Levine while I was in San Francisco.  My friend Meredith from the Pelham Cultural Council is a great friend of theirs and encouraged me to get in touch before my trip.  They were super hosts and are both very involved in San Francisco neighborhood preservation and development.  Toby serves on several boards and seems to be familiar with every important neighborhood issue both past and present.  At one point early in my stay she asked me if I was interested in large industrial sites.  Indicating that I was, she made arrangements for me to have a tour of a few buildings at Pier 70 that are slated for development.

I only had about an hour and just my little cameras with me, but Everardo, who interns with the development company gave us a grand tour of buildings 112/113 and 104.

I get so jazzed about shooting in these environments.

There is something about this time in the life of a building that intrigues me.

Since I was not able to photograph during its productive era, I can only imagine what was happening in these rooms when they were in use.

But there is usually enough evidence left behind to give an inkling to what it might have been like to work here.

And the light is always so natural and soft.

This building is huge.  It was part of a ship building and dry dock  facility which at one time was part of Bethlehem Steel.  I believe that it was originally the Union Iron Works.

Which at one time must have employed a ton of people.

I especially like old locker rooms and bathrooms.

Nice sign over the urinals.

It is not difficult to imagine people using these sinks after a long day’s work.

I like this little office in the middle of everything.

This is a view of the second floor of 113.

How about the red fingernails painted on this stylized hand which points the way to the rest room?

This color green shows up regularly in buildings like this one.  The light fixtures give a bit of a clue to when this office space was last renovated.  I’d say mid 1960’s.

These last few shots are from building 104 which seems to have been mostly used for administrative offices.

This is the top floor of 104.  You can just see the skylights which at some time were painted black.

The staircases are fantastic.

More lockers here, and it seems odd to me that they were in what was essentially an office building.

There was a small hospital in one wing of 104, and with all the machinery that is saw, I can imagine it was a busy place at times.

Thanks so much to the Orton Development people for granting me access to these amazing buildings.  And of course to Toby and Jerry.  Here are a few links to learn more about the site, its history, and future.  Click here and here.