Effort grows to save Hangar One Effort grows to save Hangar One (March 19, 2004)

Group hopes 'endangered' listing will save Silicon Valley icon

By Grace Rauh

If local preservationists get their way, the massive hangar on Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View will secure a spot on the nation's most endangered historic places' list as early as May.

A successful nomination would place Hangar One on America's Most Endangered Historic Places roster.

"This list has often been used to find solutions," said Alison Hicks, who chairs the Mountain View Preservation Alliance which made the nomination. "It is really a means for calling attention to places, like Hangar One."

A Silicon Valley icon since its construction during the Depression era, Hangar One is being threatened with demolition. The hangar is aging, and toxic contaminants were discovered on the property last year.

Although a spot on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list won't bring money or aid, preservationists believe it will raise awareness about the building's historical and architectural significance.

Hangar One was an "engineering wonder when it was built,'' the preservation alliance noted in its nomination. It is also one of the largest remaining hangars in the country.

"It really makes you feel tiny," said Bart Gray, an investment banker from Mountain View who has spearheaded the effort to save Hangar One. "Just the scale and scope of the architecture ... it almost feels like it has its own weather system."

The hangar is rumored to be so large that clouds have formed inside on occasion.

SpaceWorld Hangar One, a large-scale interactive space and science center, had planned to move into the giant space, before demolition plans were announced. Gray would like to see SpaceWorld move into the hangar and transform it into a museum.

"They're ready to go," he said. Hangar One was constructed in the early 1930s and has long been considered by Bay Area preservationists to be a landmark for both its contributions to commercial and military aviation and its structure and construction.

It was once home to the world's then-largest airship, the Navy's U.S.S. Macon. Covering nearly eight acres and soaring to more than 15 stories, the colossal structure was a technological breakthrough in its time.

Its construction culminated a joint effort of Bay Area communities in which private citizens and municipal governments banded together to purchase the land and donate it to the federal government as a means of attracting jobs and stimulating technological development.

After being abandoned by the Navy, and following several years of study, plans for an adaptive reuse of Hangar One as a space center were interrupted last year upon the discovery of toxic contaminants.

In a November 2003 letter to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, voiced their concerns.

"We urge the Navy to adopt a long-term remediation plan that allows Hangar One to be preserved," the legislators wrote. "It is an important historical landmark in Silicon Valley."

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com Bay City News contributed to this report.

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