Pier into the past

In 2013, the original 1936 eastern span of the Bay Bridge was closed permanently to traffic and replaced with a new self-anchored suspension bridge. The original span was carefully dismantled and demolished over a five year period. In 2015 the Bay Bridge Steel Program was created in response to significant public interest from Bay Area artists and creative communities to make steel from the bridge available for re-purposing and reuse. Through this program Katy was awarded 69,000 lbs of steel for use in Pier into the Past, a series of sculptures, auto barriers, and way-finding towers inspired by the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939, a World’s Fair on Treasure Island that celebrated the newly built Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. Pier into the Past will be installed for Hornblower Yachts on Pier 3 in 2024.

A major attraction of the Golden Gate International Exposition was its largest and most conspicuous statue, Pacifica. The 80 ft tall figure represented world peace, neighborliness, and the power of a unified Pacific coast. She was constructed of an iron frame layered with mesh wire and blanketed in plaster. In front of the sculpture was the Fountain of Western Waters, consisting of four graduated tiers of flowing water that glowed emerald green at night. Behind Pacifica was a 100 ft high by 48 ft wide metal curtain, which created a backdrop of stars designed to carry fairgoers’ prayers for peace up to heaven. The stars were connected to metal tubes which produced soft chimes when met with the sea breeze. Pacifica, the fountain in front of it, and the prayer curtain behind it, became an iconic image of the exposition, and this scene is the inspiration for Sound Wall, the feature sculpture in the Pier into the Past series.