Treasure Island in San Francisco has always been a bit of a misnomer; it’s a man-made island that was a naval base for many years, but carried no treasures to speak of. In the last decade, however, the tiny underdeveloped island has been opened up to commercial and residential opportunities. With the island getting a new lease on life, a new restaurant built there in 2018 decided to also give a second chance to reclaimed and recycled goods. Thirteen shipping containers were repurposed into permanent modular buildings and are now a beautiful indoor bar, dining space, bathrooms, and a high end kitchen. What was once a bunch of rusty, old shipping containers now have floor to ceiling windows that provide a gorgeous view of the San Francisco skyline. Most everything else on MerSea’s restaurant grounds are recycled as well. Doors from the former military kitchen are now communal tables on the gravel patio, and wooden lanes from the former naval base’s bowling alley are the communal tables in their dining room. Many of the decorations are collected knick knacks and goods reclaimed from around the island. MerSea took what others abandoned or considered trash and turned it into a responsible, fiscally sound, and sustainable dream come true through the use of permanent modular building solutions.
Permanent modular buildings can be used for anything including residential homes, office buildings, classrooms, military outposts, commercial businesses, and of course, restaurants. A repurposed shipping container may not sound like the most flexible of building options, but Adaptive Shelters has a large portfolio of prefabricated size and amenity options ranging from 8×26 feet to 16x40ft homes. Custom sizes for permanent modular buildings are also available from Adaptive. Like MerSea, you can have a space that is beautiful, sustainable, affordable, and creates no additional waste in the environment. Permanent modular buildings are becoming popular because they are extremely durable, set to a very high standard of quality control, can be transported easily (because that’s what a shipping container was for), and can be stacked or placed in creative ways to make modular home communities or business centers. If a permanent modular housing community, restaurant, or shopping center needs to expand, it is much more reasonable to add more recycled shipping containers than to demolish and rebuild an existing standing sites. Adaptive Shelters has ample ideas and resources to help make modular shipping containers your treasured space.