As you may or may not have noticed, things have been pretty quiet around here lately.  I can assure you that is not due to lack of interest, but rather the unavoidable problems of life and the lack of time to research, find, explore, and document new places.   Since it requires a lot less [...]]]> Dear Readers,

As you may or may not have noticed, things have been pretty quiet around here lately.  I can assure you that is not due to lack of interest, but rather the unavoidable problems of life and the lack of time to research, find, explore, and document new places.   Since it requires a lot less time to take pictures of things that aren’t closed to the public, that is what I have been doing.  Of course, I also wanted to share these pictures with you. So I will be doing just that on my brand new photo-a-day type photo blog with photos.  Large photos, with little words.  I hope you enjoy it.  You can find it at shotro.com This is also where all the daily photos i have been posting here will be going.

Of course, BASE will still continue to exist, and I will continue to bring you new explorations, if you haven’t already, be sure to add it to RSS reader of choice to stay up to date:

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While you’re at it you might as well get that Shotro too:

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Thank you for reading,
Mr. Read

Station A is an abandoned portion of the still active Potrero Point Power Station; a complex of various types of power plants that dominate San Francisco’s Pier 70.  The plant currently uses natural gas to supply 1/3 of San Francisco’s power.  It’s also is a polluting relic that has had affected the health of nearby [...]]]>

Station A is an abandoned portion of the still active Potrero Point Power Station; a complex of various types of power plants that dominate San Francisco’s Pier 70.  The plant currently uses natural gas to supply 1/3 of San Francisco’s power.  It’s also is a polluting relic that has had affected the health of nearby residents for the last 40 years.  You probably know it by this huge smokestack that dominates the Central Waterfront.

Asthma and cancer rates in the surrounding neighborhoods of Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and Bayview are significantly higher the rest of the city.  Fortunately, after many years of litigation, the city has reached an agreement with Mirant (current owner) to shut down the entire plant by 12/31/2010.

Image: Shawna Richardson via pier70sf.org

The Dogpatch neighborhood (formerly Potrero Point, formerly Point San Quentin) was created in the traditional San Franciscan method of making land: blast some rock out of the nearest hill and dump it in the bay.  Potrero Hill gave two square miles of top quality serpentine to create a perfectly located, artificially flat, veritable mecca for heavy industry.

By 1865 Long Bridge (now 3rd st.) was completed, allowing goods to speed efficiently to and from downtown.  Now cut off from the bay, the shallow intertidal marshes of Mission Bay (west of the bridge) were completely filled in.

The deep water access attracted railroads, steel mills, shipyards, and power plants.  Most of the steel to build San Francisco’s downtown came from Potrero Point, they also built the first locomotives, and equipment to run the cable cars.  During both World Wars, the triumvirate of Potrero, Hunter’s Point, and Alameda Shipyards were most productive in the Nation.  The entire area is steeped in history.

And Station A is no exception, it opened in 1910 and was the first oil-fired electrical generating facility in the United States.  Today it languishes, a 3 story brick building overlooking the only remaining active portion of Potrero Power: Unit 3.

Station A closed in 1979, leaving behind a toxic legacy that will affect the area for years to come.  PCB’s seem to coat every surface of the plant.  Huge turbines and gears sit frozen, never to turn again.  The only dynamic portion is the plethora of graffiti that covers the three story main room (and everywhere else).

Here is the rather ingenious logo of the AQ Crew, done by Vomit (of Tuna Cannery fame).  Notice the size of the guardrail in front of it, this thing is BIG.

Elser throws down:

These stairs lead to the remainder of the plant, a warren of pitch dark rooms and home to many types of local fauna (including skunks!).

This is the Conduit room, any photographer’s wet dream.  Although it’s pitch black you can add a little light and the rows and rows of conduit create endless geographical shapes to capture.  I wasn’t able to get a picture showing the true scale of this room but it takes at least 30 seconds to run from one side to the other.   Don’t ask me why I know that.  Also, a skunk lives in here but he keeps things in relatively good shape.

The control room is also fairly intact but completely covered with graffiti.   A solitary chair waits for anyone brave enough to try and fire this baby up.

On the roof looking north you have a passable view of the city.  That dark blob near the tree is what’s left of Irish Hill.  From what I am told, Irish Hill used to host the neighborhood-wide brawls the workers would start after the bars closed.  Basically the after party.

Just wanted to let you know the drought is almost over… I will be posting a fresh exploration about the Potrero Point Power Plant on Monday, I feel like I have been neglecting this poor blog for too long now. As soon as it stops endlessly raining I will be out at [...]]]> Hiya out there folks,

Just wanted to let you know the drought is almost over…
I will be posting a fresh exploration about the Potrero Point Power Plant on Monday, I feel like I have been neglecting this poor blog for too long now. As soon as it stops endlessly raining I will be out at it again. Thank you for your patience and continued readership. I also will be pulling the curtain back on a new blog that has been in the works for awhile now, just to peak your interest a little…

Your pal in exploration,
Mr. Read

Urban Explorers: Quests for Myth, Mystery and Meaning from Bradley L. Garrett on Vimeo.

Thanks Ryan!

Under a harsh sun, microscopic shoppers skate away their desperate economic worries.  Happy Holidays everyone!

Uh oh, looks like someone’s bucket of roller paint exploded.  Special bonus points because the paint got tagged.

They have the world’s biggest cardboard fort down at Potrero Point Power Plant, but they don’t want to share.

Deep in the heart of diesely West Oakland sits a stately former train depot known as The 16th St. Station.  Ever since Loma Prieta closed its doors permanently in 1989, it has seen developers and residents argue for years about whether or not its century of service merited its salvation.   Now, the decisions have [...]]]>

Deep in the heart of diesely West Oakland sits a stately former train depot known as The 16th St. Station.  Ever since Loma Prieta closed its doors permanently in 1989, it has seen developers and residents argue for years about whether or not its century of service merited its salvation.   Now, the decisions have been made, the water is still, and all action is stalled under a mandatory cease fire imposed by this Great Recession.

The 16th St. Station was a work horse.  As the terminus of the Transcontinental Railway, it was the biggest freight hub on the west coast.  All this traffic was supported by one of the biggest rail yards Central (now Southern) Pacific had ever built.  While shipping mass national freight it also served the region’s public transit needs in the form of East Bay Electric (The Key System’s primary competitor).  The huge growth of the black population in the 20’s and 30’s was fueled largely in part by the booming railroad industry and cheap land in Oakland.

Back then, this station probably served as the center of town, the primary focal point from which all activity radiated.  Flickr user KatiePipu has some more period photos.  Unfortunately, just like all booms, this one slowly fizzled as truck shipping and the private automobile grew in popularity.  The last hurrah for 16th Street station was when Amtrak rented it from Southern (now Union) Pacific for use as a passenger station. It served in this capacity until is sustained massive damage during the Loma Preita earthquake of ‘89.

From what I can make out of the heap of .pdfs this thing produced, is that they did finally agree to develop the site with anthill condos while preserving the station proper as some sort of community center.  However, everything pretty much stalled around 2006 and they haven’t done much else except install a burglar alarm.  You are welcome to try to make sense of these PDFs yourself.  Don’t worry, that link just goes to a normal web page where you can access the hell documents individually.  The 16th & Wood Train Station Coalition (more .pdfs) is a local group looking out for the place and making sure the developers stick to the plan.

Unfortunately, that burglar alarm means that I only have exterior shots to share.  Motion sensors are annoying effective.  It has been open in the past, but it is throughout locked down now.  Itsy Bitsy was able to fit her camera through the front doors and get the shot above.  I plan on speaking to the owner to try to obtain some legit access.

If you would like to see more interior footage, I would suggest watching E- 40’s “Tell Me When To Go” video which was filmed here:

Coordinates:

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Keep in mind the interior is guarded by motion sensors, but I am posting coordinates if you would like have a look around outside. It really is quite a beautiful building.

To my dear regular readers, few of you that there are: I just want to apologize for the lack of posts lately, but quitting smoking/girlfriend breakup/finding a new place to live/massive life changes has played hell on my blogging. I can assure you normal service will resume soon.  It is also a possibility that a [...]]]>

To my dear regular readers, few of you that there are:
I just want to apologize for the lack of posts lately, but quitting smoking/girlfriend breakup/finding a new place to live/massive life changes has played hell on my blogging. I can assure you normal service will resume soon.  It is also a possibility that a name/URL change is in the works (something more reflective of all my photography, not just the UE stuff).  I figured I am changing everything else, might as well change this too.  Name suggestions, of course, are welcome.

This was taken last November in Tilden Park.  I stuck a pair of binoculars on the end of my little Fuji F30 to fashion a super ghetto telephoto lens.  I think the muddy results actually bring out the strange texture the surface of the bay had that day.  It almost gives the picture a tilt-shifted [...]]]>

This was taken last November in Tilden Park.  I stuck a pair of binoculars on the end of my little Fuji F30 to fashion a super ghetto telephoto lens.  I think the muddy results actually bring out the strange texture the surface of the bay had that day.  It almost gives the picture a tilt-shifted look.