[FONT=Verdana]U.S. Navy officials said Tuesday they will reconsider a recommendation to tear down historic Hangar One at Moffett Field, giving new hope to preservationists who have fought to save the giant dirigible shed as Mountain View's own national treasure.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]'We haven't won yet, but this is very good news,' said Lenny Siegel, a co-founder of the Save Hangar One Committee. 'The Navy was adamant that they wouldn't change their minds, and now maybe they will.'[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Navy officials last May declared that the super-sized landmark should be torn down to get rid of the dangerous polychlorinated biphenyls that had been leaching from its metallic skin into the local groundwater. Demolition of the hangar would cost about $12 million, officials said, while decontamination would cost twice as much.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]But after an outpouring of public protest, the Navy agreed last month to seek contractor estimates comparing the price of demolition with the cost of restoring the hangar.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Based on a government contractor's findings, plus strong public support for saving the hangar, Navy officials announced Tuesday they will re-evaluate the hangar's fate.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]A new recommendation could be months away.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Navy environmental manager Rick Weissenborn would not reveal the contractor's estimates, or even identify the company that did the assessment. But, he said, the contractor confirmed that demolition would be cheaper than cleanup. However, the price difference between the two options was less than previously thought. Weissenborn would not reveal the contractor's margin of difference.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]'We're saying we're stopping the comparison we've done already, re-evaluating the alternatives we have and adding a couple more alternatives, and looking at the whole thing from scratch,' Weissenborn said.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Preservationists were elated. 'This is a very important building to a lot of people, and it's just so gratifying that the Navy is listening to us,' said Steve Williams of the Save Hangar One Committee.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Siegel and other preservationists have compared Hangar One to some of the world's greatest landmarks, like the Golden Gate Bridge. The dome-shaped behemoth was a technological marvel when it was built in 1933 to house the dirigible USS Macon, which crashed into the Pacific two years later.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Spanning the equivalent of 17 stories and seven football fields, Hangar One looms as one of the world's largest buildings without interior supports and is a defining South Bay landmark. The hangar was closed as a Superfund site in 2002 after officials discovered the leaking toxic substances.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Preservationists say it's an irreplaceable icon that they hope to convert to an air and space museum.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Related stories: here and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]here[/FONT]