New Waterfront Park At Alameda Point Designed With Sea Level Rise in Mind
ALAMEDA (KPIX 5) -- Next to Seaplane Lagoon and the San Francisco Bay sits the Bay Area's newest park on Alameda Point at the west end of Alameda Island. The three-acre waterfront park is part of the revitalization at the former Alameda Naval Air Station.
"It brings a whole new aspect to Alameda and really revitalizes this entire Naval Air Station," said Alameda Recreation and Parks Director Amy Wooldridge. "It'll be a combination of housing as well as huge open space, like 150 acres open natural park."
After sitting in various levels of decay since decommissioning in 1997, there are condos, low-income housing, and apartments popping up, capped off by the recently, but not officially opened Alameda Point Waterfront Park. The $7 million, developer-funded park was designed with a changing environment in mind.
"It's designed to work with sea-level rise.," Wooldridge said. "If you look out this way, it's designed in tiers, so when the inevitable sea-level rise comes it will inundate over time and recede with the big king tides.
The grand, empty hangars along the island's west end have turned into headquarter for distilleries like Hangar One and St. George.
Tara Pilbrow, executive director of the West End Arts District sees it becoming home to makers and artists displaced by high prices in San Francisco and Oakland as well.
"The architecture will always retain the really unique character of this space," said Pilbrow. "What we're changing is how it's used and the dynamic and the energy that it deserves to have," she said.
Locals like Alameda High School student Alex Parker say they're excited for the new room to walk and ride along the previously unwelcoming island waterfront. "
We never came out to this area - it was more like the [USS] Hornet over there or Bladieum [Sports and Fitness Club] over there - but never this space."