Historic Hangar One Getting Google-Funded Makover

CA – After years of discussion, Hangar One, the airship hangar at Moffett Federal Airfield (KNUQ), is being restored. The behemoth building, standing 200 feet high and 1,133 feet long, is the largest in Santa Clara County and one of the largest freestanding buildings in the world. It was constructed in 1933 to house the USS Macon, a 146-foot tall, 785-foot-long dirigible operated by the U.S. Navy and was designed with doors on either end that could be drawn back on rails, allowing an aircraft to enter or exit from either direction.

Hangar One is so large that it has its own microclimate, and it is not uncommon for clouds to form at its ceiling. Today, the airport is a joint military-civilian airport and the home of NASA Ames Research and Google Planetary Ventures.

For nearly a decade, Hangar One has been nothing more than a skeleton because of the environmental hazards created by the structure’s original construction. Hangar One was built at a time when very little was known about toxic materials, and so the building contained lead, PCBs, and asbestos. By the 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that Moffett Field was contaminated with hazardous materials, and communities in the south bay became more aware of pollution emanating from the base after decades of operation.

Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, founded the Save Hangar One Committee, an organization he says is made up of Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) members, navy veterans, and preservationists. They quickly mounted an effort to protect the iconic building. It wasn’t until a Congressional delegation stepped in—led by Rep. Anna Eshoo of the 19th District of California—that NASA agreed to offer 1,000 acres of Moffett, including the three dirigible hangars, for a competitive lease to Google Planetary Ventures. Google entered a $1.6 billion, 60-year lease with NASA to formally take over the facility, ostensibly with plans to repurpose all three airship hangars on-site—including Hangar One—which meant the restoration of some fashion would likely happen. Under the lease agreement, Planetary Ventures will identify and mitigate environmental impacts accordingly. NASA Ames will also be monitoring the construction for compliance with the plans and permits.