Short Term Management Plan (5­-years)

Within the next five years there will be a push to get the community involved. Reaching out to the school system will help get younger generations involved in learning about the significance of the bulb. The goal is to capture the interest of children without taking them to the bulb while it is still unsafe due to trash and hazardous materials, and to have them learn about their community’s unspoken history.

It is also necessary to start the planning and funding for the construction of a new community building on the site. The building will be used by park rangers, members involved with the bulb field trips, and also will be used as a visitor site. The theme of recycling will be incorporated into the new building to emphasize what makes the Albany Bulb so unique. The building will also have a natural water tower, solar panels, and an outdoor sculpture garden on the roof to display whatever art is salvaged from the bulb.

Sketch of Community Building onsite at the Albany Bulb created by Designer Bernardo Arjona

Long term management plan (25-­years)

The following section explores climate projections and suggests based on the evidence how the site could possibly change in the next century. A 2012 report from the California Energy Commission’s California Climate Change Center (CECCCCC), reveals that both temperature and climate changes due to greenhouse gasses and global warming will affect a majority of the bay area’s coastal sites. The two that directly affect the future of the Bulb are temperature increases and rising sea levels.

All of the statistics reveal that within the next 25 the Bulb will begin to deteriorate from these environmental conditions, raising the question of what can be done now and in the future to preserve this landscape? A proposed solution to these climate changes can be found in the ANBTIP plan which includes the creation of revetment walls. This is an extremely large cost but one that the city is willing to undertake.

Implementation of Heritage in the Future

In addition to continuing to use the site as an educational tool about social issues there will still be the possibility of using the space as a place for art to be present and practiced. The city of Albany in their proposals has already suggested a willingness to discuss the topic of a performative space. The best example of this would be to look at the Weplayers Theatre Company. In 2006, they presented their rendition of the Tempest at the Albany Bulb. For more photos of the We Players rendition of The Tempest at the bulb, please visit: http://www.weplayers.org/portfolio/tempest

Preserving the site means preserving the memory of what the Bulb once was and what it will continue to be in the future. In the next twenty-five years, we would suggest that the city sets aside the funds for an anthropological study and publication of the Bulb. This would encompass the history of the homeless and the transition into a vacant park used by dog owners and community members, eventually ending with the current state of the bulb.