Presidio Building 643: a 1923 Crissy Field Army Hangar Rebuilt as a Park Maintenance Base

Before this project, Golden Gate National Recreation Area's facility management division was spread across six buildings — three run by the Presidio Trust and three by the National Park Service. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) paid to rehabilitate 20,000 square feet of Presidio Building PE-643 as a permanent, code-compliant, accessible and efficient maintenance facility. It is now the base for the park's southern operations, which look after park sites in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. The work was done with the Presidio Trust, which manages most of the former Presidio military base.

Building 643 before construction. NPS photo.

The Presidio and its hangar

A Spanish garrison fortified the Presidio of San Francisco in 1776. It passed to Mexico in 1820 and to the United States in 1848. When Congress ended its life as an active Army post, it was transferred to the National Park Service in 1994 as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and in 1996 Congress created the Presidio Trust to manage parts of it with the Park Service.

The Army built Building 643 in 1923 as an airplane hangar for Crissy Field. By the 1930s the hangars no longer held airplanes; a link was built between the two original hangars and the building became warehouses and offices. It is a contributing structure of the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Landmark District, an outstanding collection of military architecture, landscape design and planning spanning more than 200 years.

What the work did

• Demolished the unreinforced masonry parts of the building and removed hazardous materials.
• Added seismic and structural strengthening.
• Replaced the roof, windows and doors.
• Upgraded mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection systems.
• Consolidated offices, sign and carpentry workshops, and secure storage for equipment, vehicles and materials.
• Restored the century-old building's historic look, including "Crissy Field" painted in large block letters on the new roof.

The benefits

• 20,000 square feet of deteriorating historic building brought from poor to good condition, cutting deferred maintenance and repair costs.
• Safer workspaces, with fire detection and suppression and hazardous materials removed.
• One location for the park's South District grounds and operations staff, making operations more efficient and reliable.
• Park revenue and other funds added to secure the building's long-term use.
• Accessibility problems fixed to meet code.

Sources

• National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, "Rehabilitation of historic Presidio building for NPS maintenance operations." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/rehabilitate-historic-presidio-building.htm
• Great American Outdoors Act: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/infrastructure/gaoa.htm