Use Explorer  for a better display of this Website  The view of the Ferry Building decked out to celebrate New Year’s Day 1925 demonstrates how central the structure was to the City’s way of life, a role the beautifully restored Ferry Building aims to reassert. Not knowing what to do with the Ferry Building, the Port of San Francisco hired Arntz Construction of San Francisco to create office space and retail shops in the 1950’s.               Dylan explains, "The Ferry Building is built almost completely over water. It’s built on wooden piles with concrete pile caps and a vaulted concrete structure between the pile caps. 95% of it is original. So what they built in 1890 is good enough for us to rebuild this entire new building on top of. Because it is built over water, the plumbers and electricians must use boats to dart underneath the building to do their work. Radios don’t work consistently down there. So people working under the piers need to take extra precautions. They don’t work alone, for instance. When the swells from the ferryboats entering the landings reach the backside of the building, they can be two or three feet high when they hit the shoal up near the seawall, which is right on the Embarcadero. Actually, there have been a number of incidents underneath the pier where people have had to abandon their boats and dive into the water for fear of having the boat launched up against the structure above them.   Dylan: "The area of the second floor that was cut out was where we harvested marble tile, mosaic flooring, for relocation to the ground floor – retail and public spaces. The entire east façade of the building has been completely rebuilt. We removed all the beams and columns that previously supported that end of the building and with the building on stilts essentially, put new columns and new beams along the entire waterfront side, and closed it with tongue and grooved wood boards on the ceiling to match the historic details". Letter to the Editor Ferries, Long Taken for Granted, are Now in Trouble Commuter Check Now Save Transit/Vanpool Riders Up To $480 Bill Coolidge’s Bay Crossings Journal Port of Oakland Sells Certain Jack London Square Assets Port of Oakland Appoints Assistant to Executive Director Bay Crossings Environment Captain Clark on Captain Clark A Million Dollar Tour of San Francisco for $6 WTA Report: Prospect of Bay Circle Line: Making Waves of Imagination The Ferry Building Nears its Return to Glory Embarcadero Center Sweats Out Details For Total Wellness Fair Bay Crossings Interview & Reader of the Month: the New Jack London Square Honcho James D. Falaschi Working Waterfront: Aerial Photographer Robert Campbell A Guide to San Francisco Bay Ferries