The New San Francisco X-Base

The original West Coast X-Men were based in a building owned by the team's founder, Defender, situated on a two-acre allotment approximately one mile west of 19th Avenue along Fulton Street and overlooking the northern edge of the Golden Gate Park. When the Texas X-Men relocated to San Francisco on 5 March 1992, they initially used this existing facility. However, they found it too susceptible to attack, so they took up temporary residence at the Alameda Naval Air Station until they completed work on their present custom-built base. It underwent renovations in September 1994, with the addition of a Danger Room (level 0), more office space (level 2), and more recreational areas (level 4).

The current base is located on 1 square kilometer of bush land located near where Skyline Boulevarde crosses Sneath lane, approximately 10km south of San Francisco (see map of location).

The front entrance to the estate is a wrought iron gate supported by two brick pillars and there is a four-wire fence surrounding the grounds. The driveway that leads towards the main house is composed of loose gravel compacted onto the ground. The house itself faces the north-east and has a dark red roof and its textured outer concrete walls are painted white with blue detailing. It is built on the side of a hill and there is a pool area dug into the hillside behind it. A path leads from the house off to the aircraft hangers which are located approximately 100m to the south of the house. The 100m long antenna used by Cerebro and the tachyon tracker is buried underground elsewhere on the estate.

The roof is tiled and has a small slope from back to front on it. The tiles that make up the roof are cyclone wired to reduce the risk of having them blown away by strong winds or air currents. The exterior walls of the building are 2ft thick besser brick lined reinforced concrete, as are several of the inner walls. Most of the inner walls are made from 4 inch thick pre-fabricated reinforced concrete sections. The back pool area is paved and all windows and doors have security grills attached.

Schematic showing the rough layout of the new San Francisco X-Men Team Base and grounds within its immediate proximity. The hanger is off to the left of the main building when looking at it from the front.

Within the building there are a total of 30 bedrooms (levels 3-5), plus 2 extra guest bedrooms (level 4), and one "secure" or "no-powers" room (level 2). Level 3 has a covered verandah on the left hand side of the building, and level 4 has a covered verandah overlooking the pool. The interior of the upper three floors has wood paneling on the walls. Public access ways, including hallways, general living spaces, kitchen, bathrooms are all tiled. Individual bedrooms are carpeted.

The lower two floors, the offices (level 2) and car park/lab level (level 1), do not have wood paneling on the walls, but have merely painted plaster covering the walls. Once again, the floors in general access areas are tiled, except in individual offices and rooms. The "Danger Room" (level 0 and level 1) is 100ft wide by 100ft long, and completely underground. It is 2 stories high, with access being through the Danger Room control room (level 1), reached via the labs. There is also now a hidden emergency exit from the Danger Room control room on level 1, to the left of the building.

Because of the risk of attack by super-powered villains, the X-Men's base of operations has strong and effective security measures in place. The San Francisco base is covered by a multi-layered security system, consisting of:

• physical security measures;
• electronic surveillance and security measures;
• the Vampire security system (Cerebro plus radar); and
• computer security.

Long-range security and an early warning facility are also provided by the Cerebro system.

This is integrated with a house and personal alarm/communication system to provide the best possible security for members.

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