When construction crews began digging the 60-foot pit that would become the foundation for The Infinity luxury apartments, the last thing the builders thought they would find was an old relic from San Francisco’s history.

Twenty-feet into the excavation of the site, crews came across a 125-foot ship which was later identified as the 1818 whaling ship The Candace. Back in its heyday the ship was used for sea trades and sperm whale hunting in the South Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. After a voyage to the Arctic damaged the ship, Captain Norman Starr guided the leaking vessel to San Francisco, arriving on July 4, 1855. The Candace was buried under the city and forgotten until crews working on the project made her discovery. As the only ship to be discovered in tact under the city, The Candace has found a new home as the centerpiece of the San Francisco History Museum.

After construction resumed and the ship was safety relocated Kryton was able to waterproof the five-level below grade parking structure, elevator pits and the foundation slab using Krystol Internal Membrane (or KIM) admixture. The building sits 50-feet below the water table, just steps from San Francisco’s famed Ferry Building so waterproofing was a major concern.

Read more about this construction challenge in issue 11.2 of our Krystol Magazine. Subscribe to our bi-annual Krystol Magazine here.