Sherwin-Williams

Sherwin-Williams. “Cover the Earth”. , For over 85 years, from 1920 to 2007, the area in front of you was the site of a large Sherwin-Williams paint factory. The only remaining structure is "Building I-31", the brick and concrete building at Horton Street and Sherwin Avenue., The Sherwin-Williams paint company began in Cleveland, Ohio in 1866, when bookkeeper Henry Sherwin invested his life savings of $2,000 in Truman Dunham and Co., a paint distributorship. In 1870, he was joined by Edward Williams and in 1873 they opened their first paint factory., In 1884, the company was incorporated as Sherwin-Williams, with sales agents in New York and Chicago. By the early 20th Century, the company was large enough to establish two additional factories outside Cleveland, one in Newark, New Jersey, and the other on this site in Emeryville., The Emeryville plant cost about a million dollars to build in 1920 (that would have been about $14 million in 2020 dollars). According to the Oakland Tribune, Building I-31 served as "a great warehouse and the general offices of the company. It is here that the general manager of the entire Pacific Coast district makes his headquarters and from this point that all of the business of the Pacific Coast is directed.", In 1936, when the Bay Bridge opened to traffic and Treasure Island was built for the Golden Gate International Exposition, the Sherwin-Williams paint factory was readily visible to the general public for the first time. To take advantage of its newly-prominent location, the company erected a huge sign atop Building I-31. Measuring 75 feet tall by 320 feet wide, it was one of the largest rooftop neon signs west Chicago., In 1974, concerned that the old "Cover the Earth” logo "did not reflect an environmentally aware, diversified manufacturer," the company decided to rebrand itself. Reflecting these concerns, the sign went dark forever in 1976 and was demolished in 1977. However, responding to consumer backlash and unable to come up with a more iconic symbol, the company reinstated the "Cover the Earth” logo in 1979., During its first 67 years of operations, the Emeryville factory produced several toxic products, including lead- arsenate pesticides, and oil-based paints and varnishes. In 1987, it switched to water-based paint for its last 20 years of operations. But by then, the soil and groundwater were contaminated with a toxic soup of chemicals, including arsenic, lead, and volatile organic compounds (VOC)., In the late 1990s, facing orders from the State to clean up the site, Sherwin-Williams decided to replace its aging Emeryville facility. Decommissioning of the factory begin in 2006 and it closed its doors in 2007, replaced by a $10.7 million state-of- the-art plant in Fernley, Nevada, about 36 miles east of Reno. This new facility, known as the Sherwin-Williams Western Emulsion Plant, manufactures only water-based latex paint. , A Remedial Action Plan for the Emeryville site was approved by the State Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) in June 2010. It called for removing 57,000 cubic yards of lead, arsenic, and VOC contaminated soil from the site and installing sub-surface remedial features, including an underground dam, to control the arsenic contaminated groundwater. Fortunately, the old rail spur that had brought raw materials for paint manufacturing to the factory was still in place, so some of the soil was hauled away in railroad cars, thereby eliminating hundreds of truck trips through the neighborhood. These remediation efforts took place in 2011-2012, and in January 2013, DTSC issued a "Certificate of Completion". , Later in 2013, planning began to redevelop the site with a mixed-use project. In November 2016, the Emeryville City Council approved a "Planned Unit Development" consisting of 500 housing units in four new buildings (including 85 affordable units), the adaptive reuse of Building I-31 for research and development, and 3.5 acres of public open space, including a new City park and extension of the Emeryville Greenway. The project, called "The Emery", was completed in 2023.,