Finally! Somewhere to Here

20 years ago, had you asked a San Francisco resident where Dogpatch was, you probably would have received a blank stare. That’s about to change.

One popular theory about the Dogpatch name origin is that the neighborhood was named after cartoonist Al Capp’s classic comic strip Lil Abner, which ran in newspapers nationwide from the 1930s to the 1970s. Dogpatch was a fictional, middle-of-nowhere, underdeveloped backwater; a primitive community “nestled in a bleak valley between two cheap and uninteresting hills somewhere.” With a revitalized Pier 70 in the offing, such a description will likely no longer be appropriate.

The Pier 70 development on land just to the east of Dogpatch, and adjacent to the water, has a 150-year history as an industrial/shipbuilding area and stretches across some 28 acres. In late 2017, the Board of Supervisors approved an ambitious 10-year plan–created by Cleveland, OH-based Forest City Realty (since acquired by Brookfield Properties)–to revitalize this area of dilapidated industrial/shipbuilding establishments (see area map above). A goodbye to the old Dogpatch connotation is probably in order.

In keeping with the Bay Area’s tech and sustainability culture, not to mention cost and other considerations, Brookfield is building a new office building using mid-rise cross laminated timber (a technology developed in Europe in the early 2000s). The rendering seen here was created by Hacker Architects of Portland, OR, and contains neither steel nor concrete.

The envisioned Pier 70 will contain new and renovated office/residential buildings, multiple open space parks, restaurants, and arts centers. In short, an area that has been essentially “closed off” since the end of World War II will become a thriving, multi-use residential and commercial center, unlike any other neighborhood in San Francisco. Good stuff!