The city of San Francisco, historically developed upon a racially diverse workers’ culture, has experienced an industrial diversity across its lifespan. Beginning with the Gold Rush in 1848 and carrying through to the most recent technological advancements of the metropolis, San Francisco has blossomed into what appears to be an economically prosperous and demographically rich urban environment. However, this technological renaissance has contributed to a culture of greed and displacement for many San Francisco residents. 

 

As the working culture within San Francisco plummets, one of the last remnants of cultural diversity lies within the Southeastern region of the city, Hunter’s point. Stemming from a previously prosperous industrialized district, the now abandoned site has transitioned from a meatpacking district and Naval drydock to the home of a racially diverse population, overcoming a violent history of socioeconomic and environmental challenges. 

 

Currently under remediation and development, the site is facing the same obstacles that gentrification and technological advancements have imposed on the rest of the San Francisco area. 

 

In the midst of redeveloping Hunter’s Point through the gentrification of residential and vastly commercial use, the once prosperous industry of the site will be abolished. For this reason, we have selected Hunter’s Point as our site for a new monumentality. 

 

Our depiction of new monumentality deliberates a critique of history and memory. Previously, history has represented a singular narrative, determining how certain events are remembered. Alternatively, memory is continuous, allowing individuals to forge their own deviations surrounding the context as to how an event occurred. While history appears to be constructed by the victor, memory is inevitably composed socially. If old monumentality is the commemoration of a hypercurated history, then our new monumentality is the synthesis between memory and history, leading into the evolution of our project. 

 

As urban development and gentrification of  San Francisco are ultimately inevitable, we do not aim to preserve the entirety of the Hunter’s Point drydock. Instead, we aim to preserve and restore an essential axis that carves through the site. As new, commercial development begins to encompass the axis, the site stands rigid in preserving both the history and memory of Hunter’s Point. Through the implementation of architectural strategies, incorporating respectful contrast to existing physical qualities, digital media, and non-linear form, Hunter’s Point Museum and New Industry Center aims to achieve a new monumentality that counteracts the social pressures and gentrification impacting the drydock.