One of the art moderne Big Whites (City of Alameda)

One of four plans for the redevelopment of a closed California military base will determine the fate of a collection of 67-year-old officers' houses known as the Big Whites.

A decade ago, the federal government closed the U.S. Naval Air Station in Alameda, Calif., as a part of the 1993 round of base closures. Last September, the project's developer withdrew, prompting the city's Reuse and Redevelopment Authority to draft new requests for proposals. The reuse authority hopes to choose from four proposals by the beginning of next month.

The former Naval Station, a portion of which is eligible to be named a National Historic District, includes 86 contributing structures, 17 of which are stucco houses known as the Big Whites. While the Big Whites served as housing for senior officers, the larger historic district includes seaplane and conventional airplane hangars surrounding a seaplane lagoon, as well as additional art deco-art moderne buildings, all dating from 1938-1945.

"By San Francisco Bay Area standards, the 'Big Whites' and the plots they sit on are big, big, big," Dick Rutter, an architect who once lived on the base, said in an e-mail. "Thus, there is huge development pressure on [Alameda Island] and on the property for the construction of little boxes, cheek by jowel, that a family will readily pay $1 million to live in."

Six years ago the Alameda Reuse and Redevelopment Authority selected a master developer and completed a preliminary development concept that called for the demolition and removal of many of the structures, including the Big Whites. Debbie Potter, the authority's base reuse and community development manager, explains that the recommendation came, in part, because the structures are in a 100-year flood zone. As a result, the buildings would be "very difficult to be retained, given the need to raise the ground level to get [them] out of the flood zone," she says.

The authority says that most of the development work is merely preliminary and that it hopes to find a solution to preserve as many of the contributing structures as possible, including the Big Whites.

One of the four proposals for Alameda Point pledges to work with the historic preservation community to salvage and reuse 95 percent of demolished buildings. Two other proposals promise to work with the community to protect Alameda Point’s history. The fourth idea is to create a “Green Island Village,” a "global model for new green city developments for sea-level communities."

Some people have suggested moving them to an adjacent block and recreating their park-like setting to preserve context.

Others disagree. Elizabeth Krase of the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society says her group has some "concern that taking them out would create big gaps within the eligible historic district, especially as a loss of both physical and spatial continuity." That plan calls for removal of 28 of the district's contributors for contemporary housing in the 700-acre development.

To read the full proposals, visit http://www.alameda-point.com/gallery.html.

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