Magic Isle

Technically zoned as a “neighborhood” of San Francisco, Treasure Island is an artificial island built in 1936 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, a World Fair site. Called the “Magic Isle,” the US Navy had designs on taking over the space even before the Fair ended. As WW2 loomed, the military leased the island and by 1941 the Naval Station was born and operated until after the end of the Cold War, finally closed in 1997 and since then the land, dubbed “Radiation Island” for its housing of radioactive ships from Bikini Atoll tests, has been the site of toxic cleanup and redevelopment.

Naturally curious of abandonment military buildings, I discovered an entrance to a former Bachelor Officer Quarters and proceeded to document the decay. This project will likely be an ongoing series of parts of the island that aren’t demolished in the coming months and years.