Hangar One ( Mountain View , California ) Hangar One is one of the world ' s largest freestanding structures , covering , and has long been one of the most recognizable landmarks of California ' s Silicon Valley . An early example of mid - century modern architecture , it was built in the 1930s as a naval airship station for the USS " Macon " . Design and construction . Designed by German air ship and structural engineer Dr . Karl Arnstein , Vice President and Director of Engineering for the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation of Akron , Ohio , in collaboration with Wilbur Watson Associates Architects and Engineers of Cleveland , Ohio , Hangar One is constructed on a network of steel girder s sheathed with galvanized steel . It rests firmly upon a reinforced pad anchored to concrete pilings . The floor covers 8 acres and can accommodate six ( 6 ) ( 360 feet x 160 feet ) American football fields . The airship hangar measures long and wide . The building has an aerodynamic architecture . Its walls curve inward to form an elongated approximate catenary form 198 feet ( 60 m ) high . The clam - shell doors were designed to reduce turbulence when the " Macon " moved in and out on windy days . The " orange peel " doors , weighing 200 short tons ( 180 metric tons ) each , are moved by their own motors operated via an electrical control panel . The hangar ' s interior is so large that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling . A person who is unaccustomed to the building ' s extension is susceptible to optical disorientation . Looking across its deck , planes and tractors appear like toys . Looking up , a network of catwalks for access to all parts of the structure can be seen . Two elevators meet near the top , allowing maintenance personnel to get to the top quickly and easily . Narrow gauge tracks run through the length of the hangar . During the period of lighter - than - air dirigibles and non - rigid aircraft , the rails extended across the apron and into the fields at each end of the hangar . This tramway facilitated the transportation of an airship on the mooring mast to the hangar interior or to the flight position . During the brief period that the " Macon " was based at Moffett , Hangar One accommodated not only the giant airship but several smaller non - rigid lighter - than - air craft simultaneously . Similar structures . Hangar One is similar to the Goodyear Airdock in Akron , Ohio which was built by the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation in 1929 . At the time this was built , it was the largest building in the world without interior supports , providing an unusually extensive room for the construction of " lighter - than - air " ships ( later known as airships , dirigibles , or blimps ) . The first two airships to be constructed and launched at the Airdock were USS " Akron " and its sister ship , USS " Macon " , built in 1931 and 1933 , respectively . These two airships were 785 feet ( 239 m ) in length . Other historic references date back to Europe . An outstanding example are the two Hangar d ' Orly for dirigibles at Orly Air Base near Paris . They were designed and built in 1921 – 1922 by French structural and civil engineer Eugène Freyssinet , the major pioneer of prestressed concrete , and destroyed in World War II . Another remarkable example of a similar concrete construction are the two airplane hangars for the Italian Air Force in Orvieto , Italy , by Italian architect and structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi , designed in 1935 and built in 1938 . They were destroyed during World War II . Renovation and future . There has been an ongoing debate over the future of Hangar One . As the 21st century began , maintenance shops , inspection laboratories and offices along its length helped to keep the hangar busy , and plans to convert it to a space and science center were proposed . These were put on hold with the discovery in 2003 that the structure was leaking toxic chemicals into the sediment in wetlands bordering San Francisco Bay . The chemicals originated in the lead paint and toxic materials , including polychlorinated biphenyl s ( PCBs ) , used to coat the hangar . Proposed options included tearing down the hangar and reusing the land , or cleaning the toxic waste from the site and refurbishing the hangar for future preservation . The US Navy evaluated options for remediating the PCBs , lead and asbestos , as NASA considered options for reuse of the hangar . Some historic and nonprofit groups advocated designating the hangar as a historic landmark . In 2006 , an offer to clean the hangar and coat its outsides with solar panels to recoup the costs of cleaning was proposed by a private company , but the plan never saw fruition due to its cost . In 2008 , the Navy proposed simply stripping the toxic covering from the hangar and leaving the skeleton , after spraying it with a preservative . The Navy claimed that to reclad the structure would cost another $ 15 million , which would be NASA ' s responsibility . This was regarded as a partial victory by campaigners . NASA indicated that it was still urging the Navy to restore the hangar , but that it was willing to help save the structure ; in particular , NASA was in favor of re - covering the structure at the same time as it was stripped . After months of planning and preparation , work to remove the exterior panels began in April 2011 , requiring " the biggest scaffolding job in the history of the West Coast . " The work was completed in mid - 2012 . In September 2011 , Google top executives Larry Page , Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt proposed paying the full $ 33 million cost of revamping Hangar One , in exchange for being able to use up to two - thirds of the floor space to shelter eight of their private jets . In September 2012 , it was reported that proposals to restore the hangar had been rejected by NASA administration , and that the government would instead direct its efforts toward selling the Moffett facility . Legacy . Hangar One is listed in the Santa Clara County Heritage Resource Inventory . Hangar One is also a designated Naval Historical Monument and a pivotal contributing property to the U . S . Naval Air Station , Sunnyvale National Register Historic District — significant on the national level for its association with the expanding coastal defense capabilities of the U . S . Navy and airship technology during the country ' s peacetime era between 1932 and 1945 . The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 . In 2008 , Hangar One was listed as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the U . S by the National Trust for Historic Preservation . In popular culture , Hangar One can be seen in various episodes of the Discovery Channel TV show " MythBusters " . For instance , the show used one of the smaller hangars to disprove the myth that it is not possible to fold a sheet of paper in half more than seven times . The sheet of paper covered nearly the full width of the airship hangar . Other episodes of Mythbusters have utilized the hangar to test myths such as " Inflating a football with helium allows longer kick distances " and " Airworthy aircraft can be constructed of concrete . " .