In January 2003, the first wave of UCSF faculty, students, and staff members embark on a 3.85-mile journey from the often foggy and windswept Parnassus Heights campus, down to arrive at sunny shore of UCSF Mission Bay.

"It's a huge undertaking, said Tom Hochmuth, relocations manager for UCSF Facilities Management. "We're starting and not stopping until it's finished - six days a week for six months."

No matter how the move is measured, the move to the first research building Genentech Hall is huge. Consider this:

In all, 54 laboratories will be moved, suffering only a week of downtime for their ongoing research projects.
Some 10,000 individual pieces of equipment will be moved, from enormous fume hoods to delicate electron microscopes to mice cages and their fragile occupants.
Banks of freezers filled with petri dishes and other scientific materials will keep their contents at a constant 70 degrees centigrade below zero by rolling them onto specially designed trucks equipped with rows of power outlets.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of the items require special handling and recalibration by vendors after they are moved, including such things as centrifuges or an electron microscope. The cost of disassembling, packing, reassembling an electron microscope? About $200,000. Because of the care and expense required for this equipment, pile driving for the adjoining Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research or QB3 building must be complete before January.

Handing over the keys

The campus has come a long way since October 1999, when UCSF hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the first laboratory building at the new UCSF Mission Bay campus, later named Genentech Hall. At a ceremony expected to take place this October, the keys to the largest laboratory project ever undertaken at UCSF will be handed from the building architects to campus officials.

After the building systems undergo final inspections and modifications, the campus fire marshal must give the approval to move into Genentech Hall. "We're going to be moving a laboratory neighborhood [approximately four principle investigators and their staffs) every two weeks," said Georgianne Meade, director of research development. "We're moving ongoing research studies, operating freezers, and chemicals."

Hazardous materials, such as some chemicals used in laboratories, will be packed and moved by specially licensed vendors under the supervision of campus Environmental Health and Safety officials.

Planning began a year before the move by taking an inventory of every piece of equipment in labs slated for relocation to UCSF Mission Bay. The campus contracted with MHS Associates, consultants who specialize in large laboratory moves, to conduct the inventory.

In December 2001, three teams of two MHS consultants began meeting with each of the laboratory groups. Over a two-month period they met with all 54 groups and placed bar-coded labels on every piece of equipment.

With the information they gathered and the inventory of equipment, the consultants will produce a floor plan of each laboratory in Genentech Hall showing exactly where every fume hood, table, and piece of electrical equipment, Hochmuth said.

"The plan matches a specific freezer with an electrical outlet in the new building," he said. "It's a road map that shows movers, electricians, plumbers and others exactly how everything fits together."

The floor plan will help keep the rapid pace of the move on track. The move to UCSF Laurel Heights was similar in size, Hochmuth explained, but it could occur over the course of a full year because the offices and dry labs making the move weren't as interdependent.

"When we move a lab away from Parnassus, we're often taking away equipment that other labs share and rely on," Hochmuth said. "So we need to move much more equipment in half the time."

A plan for action

Once the relocation begins, the first occupants of Genentech Hall will be those at the east end of the fifth floor. Subsequent moves will occupy space moving west. The same pattern will be repeated in sequence on descending floors until the building is fully occupied by mid-summer.

The history of Genentech Hall stretches back to October 1993, when the campus issued a Request for Information to developers seeking proposals to build a new laboratory to ease an immediate and critical space shortage. The proposed project became known as the "RFI building," but as planning continued it became increasingly clear that this new laboratory building should be built at the site of the major expansion site selected in the Long Range Development Plan.

Still later, operational and construction efficiencies led to the joining of the RFI building with another building planned for UCSF Mission Bay. If Genentech Hall looks like two offset buildings joined at the spine - it is. Veterans of the campus LRDP process occasionally make a wry reference to Genetech Hall as the RFI building.

Once construction began, Genentech Hall was built to the highest design and construction standards. While campus research space built in the past, for example, provided a ratio of a half square foot of support space for each square foot of laboratory space, Genentech Hall offers a ratio of one square foot of support space for each square foot of laboratory space. The building routinely receives visits from scientists and laboratory planners from around the world interested in seeing the latest and best in building design.

Meanwhile, researchers are eager to move into their new space while maintaining a seamless focus on the mysteries of life. Among the questions being pondered: Where can laboratory staffers find a decent lunch in the vast expanse of Mission Bay? How do they arrange for parking at the new campus? Or how far is it to Pacific Bell Park?

In the interest of scientific advancement, here's the answer to the last question. About 1.05 miles.

Source: Bill Gordon

Last updated January 28, 2005

Genentech Hall

Genentech Hall (24A/B), a six-story, 434,000-gross-square-foot biomedical research facility, broke ground in October 1999 and was completed in October 2002. Scientists began moving into the building in January 2003 and will continue to move in through May 2003. Designed as a model for interactive research, the $223 million research building will contain programs in structural and chemical biology and molecular, cell and developmental biology, as well as the Molecular Design Institute and the Center for Advanced Technology. The building features an atrium, outdoor amphitheater, a library and café, which will open in March 2003. Photo by Kaz Tsuruta.