The Engineering 1B building is in the process of being
demolished, kicking off the first phase of a multi-million dollar
project to upgrade the Henry Samueli School of Engineering’s
facilities.
The replacement 1B building will better accommodate the
engineering school’s growing bio-engineering department,
which requires specialized lab facilities that the current
buildings are unable to provide.
The new buildings will also provide space for graduate research
and faculty offices, said Gregory Pottie, associate dean of
research and physical resources for the department.
The old buildings, built in 1953, were in need of costly seismic
upgrades.
Replacing the buildings seemed a better option than renovating
them, Pottie said.
Students familiar with the Engineering 1 buildings said their
conditions were bad.
“It was a really crappy building,” said senior Scott
Si, a chemical engineering student regarding the 1B building.
“The building was kind of dirty and worn down. … It
looked like it was about to fall apart,” said Russell
Ghiselli, another engineering student. Ghiselli added, however,
that he hates the construction.
“There’s construction all over, all day.
There’s always noise; there’s always dust in the
air.”
Dozens of people gathered Dec. 17 to watch the start of the
demolition of the Engineering 1B building, which will be replaced
by 2006.
The number of spectators was highly unusual, said Jon Landon, an
abatement supervisor who worked at the site.
“It was the most people I’ve ever seen come out for
a demolition.”
The construction of the new buildings is a step for the
university toward fulfilling its mission to be a leading research
and teaching institution.
The Engineering 1A building will be replaced during the second
phase of construction, which the engineering department expects to
start no earlier than 2010. A third building will be constructed
during the final phase of the project, which is too far in the
future to estimate a start date, Pottie said.
The university has not yet secured funding for either of the
last two phases and has only partially secured funding for the
first, estimated to cost over $50 million, Pottie added.
Part of the funding for the replacement of the Engineering 1B
building will come from a donation from Henry Samueli, for whom the
school of engineering is named.
The Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond
Act, which California voters passed last year, will provide $24
million toward the project’s first phase.
Once complete, the three buildings will contain almost three
times as much space as the current two buildings do.
The engineering department relocated the occupants of the
Engineering 1B building to several nearby facilities, such as
Boelter Hall and the Engineering IV buildings, Pottie said.