[Image, courtesy the City of Richmond via SFist]
UC Berkeley has an 80-year history of collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and yesterday morning they announced that UC will consolidate their bio-sciences programs on a university-owned bayfront site known as the Richmond Field Station. They'll begin to draft environmental impact reports, and since the lab is a program of the U.S. Department of Energy, start looking for approval from Washington. And while the site is in RIchmond, one of the Bay Area's most troubled communities, the 100-acre site is separated from most of the population by the I-80 freeway. Of course, "jobs" were mentioned, and Berkeleyside has more details on the RIchmond perspective. No word on relocating the other UC programs currently on the site- there are sculpture studios and engineering programs, among others- or the non-U commercial tenants like the EPA and Schlumberger. Also no word on when construction is expected to begin, but the new facility is certain to put Richmond on the global science map.
· Berkeley Lab [US Dept of Energy]
· Lab Choice May Be Beneficial to Berkeley in the Long Run [Berkeleyside]
[Kenneth Probst Photography]