WETA directors this month approved a $475,000 contract to Los Angeles-headquartered AECOM to study the feasibility of using hovercraft for ferry service on the Bay.
Published: October, 2019
Hovercraft Study Gets OK: WETA directors this month approved a $475,000 contract to Los Angeles-headquartered AECOM to study the feasibility of using hovercraft for ferry service on the Bay. The giant engineering company has several Bay Area offices and employs more than 80,000 people worldwide. The study begins in October and is expected to last a year. There is considerable interest in hovercraft in ferry boat circles. The flat-bottomed boats that float on a cushion of air could provide long-awaited ferry service to communities in the South Bay, where sedimentation makes it impossible to use traditional ferries. Proponents of the “air boats” will have to navigate a special set of challenges, however, including the need for new shoreline landing areas and specially trained crews, as well as environmental issues involving emissions, noise and disruption to wildlife.
Ferry Building Makeover: The Historic San Francisco Building will be restored to its original “Colusa sandstone grey” color, in a two-year restoration project that is just beginning. Real Estate companies Hudson Pacific Properties and Allianz Real Estate, which acquired the building in late 2018 from Blackstone Group’s Equity Office, said the project will include repairs to the building’s weathered facade as well as a new paint job. Constructed in 1898 and designed by San Francisco architect A. Page Brown, the building was among the few downtown structures to survive the 1906 earthquake. In the 1970s, the exterior was coated with a cement and acrylic agent that eventually discolored. It has been repainted more than once in the interim, but its colors no longer conform to its historic origins, and the real estate companies have hired the historic restoration firm Architectural Resources Group to oversee the latest project for historical accuracy. The restoration is not expected to affect ferry service or to have a significant impact on Ferry Building retail.
