Building 113/114, Machine Shop (San Francisco, California)

 production, 1886_construction

Built in 1886. This building is still being used as a machine shop by BAE Systems today.

pier70sf.org/mappage/mappage.htm --

"This 450 foot long structure consists of two original brick structures connected by a reinforced concrete infill structure. The eastern structure is a single gable wide, and originally housed the bolt and rivet shop and the erecting shop. The connecting structure is classically detailed, with a large, arched center opening and flanking steel sash windows.

"It is likely that the Machine Shop was built without an architect. Best characterized as industrial style, handsome brick structures such as these were soon replaced by all steel technology as an industrial building type. While actual shipbuilding took place on the nearby drydocks, the equipment used in the construction of the ship elements was housed here.

"This is an increasingly rare example of a fine and early type of construction. The building excels, not for its ornament, but for its lack of the same. This building clearly expresses its industrial character through its immense, column-free space, which gives an exterior expression of simple mass. Aside from its corbelled cornice an arched industrial windows, it expresses a unique willingness to simply allow its form to be directed by its function—a rare quality in building constructed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century."