Officials Friday unveiled their plans to throw the Golden Gate Bridge a 75th anniversary celebration befitting an icon of the septuagenarian’s stature.
The extended fete will be anchored by a two-day festival over Memorial Day weekend in 2012. A new visitors’ pavilion will be built in the current parking lot, and renovations will be made to the existing facilities at one of the world’s most recognizable 1.2-mile stretch of road.
Two new vantage points will also be added to the San Francisco waterfront, and 75 community partners will be chosen to pay tribute to the bridge in unique and creative ways.
The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy today presented the proposal, which was approved unanimously by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District board of directors. The Presidio Trust and National Park Service are also collaborating on the events.
“I’m thrilled the ideas were embraced,” conservancy executive director Greg Moore said.
“I think the board can see that collectively we can improve the bridge experience for visitors.”
San Francisco Giants president Larry Baer and philanthropist Nancy Bechtle are chairing the 75th anniversary committee, which launched a new website today, the bridge’s 74th birthday.
Baer, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, said he has loved the bridge ever since he was a kid growing up in the Richmond District.
“You come home — like after one of your key players gets injured — and find solace with the bridge,” he said, referring to catcher Buster Posey’s potentially season-ending leg fracture during a game on Wednesday.
The Giants have already signed on to be among the 75 community partners devising creative ways to honor the bridge.
The Marin Symphony is also commissioning and performing a piece for the bridge, Moore said, and the anniversary committee is soliciting proposals for other projects until June 20.
Most of the tributes will take place between April and October of 2012.
On May 26-27, 2012, a two-day festival will be centered on the city’s waterfront to evoke the bridge’s historic opening fiesta, which was held at Crissy Field in 1937.
The entire project is estimated to cost about $5 million for physical improvements and $3 million for the anniversary program, Moore said. The bridge will remain open to traffic throughout the celebration.
Funding will be provided by corporate and media sponsors, the parks conservancy, and philanthropic foundations, two of which have already pledged donations to the overlook projects, he said.
The construction and renovation should be done in time for the America’s Cup sailing events in 2012 and 2013.
“It’s going to be a wonderful time,” bridge district board president Janet Reilly said.
More information about the anniversary is available at http://goldengatebridge75.org.
Janna Brancolini, Bay City News
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