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Research Support Building and Renovations to Bring Office Moves and New Spaces

(Photo)
The new Research Support Building, or RSB, will replace PEP City.

Over the next four years, the SLAC landscape will be significantly altered. Where once stood a city of weathered trailers, a gleaming three-story office building, the Research Support Building (Building 52) will rise. The Administrative and Engineering Building (Building 41) and the Warehouse/User Building (Building 28) will be completely renovated. When all is said and done, employees will be located near the people they work with; will work in modern, energy-efficient spaces with significantly more windows and natural light; and will be able to congregate in comfortable, shared lobby and break space.

To make this happen, nearly half of SLAC's staff will need to move offices at least once in the coming four years, and construction will affect vehicular and pedestrian access around the laboratory.

"During this period of construction, office space that is already tight will get tighter," said Project Director Greg Herman. "These moves will doubtlessly be difficult for many, but it will be worth it. With new construction and newly renovated space, we will all have the modern infrastructure we need to be collaborative and productive. This work is a great thing for SLAC."

The first set of office moves is scheduled to begin this July, when Linac Coherent Light Source staff members transition from Building 280 into the newly completed LCLS building (Building 901). That will free up office space in Building 280 that many of the current occupants of Building 28 and PEP City will then occupy. (Other Building 28 and PEP City occupants will be temporarily relocated to Buildings 35, 41 and 50.) When these moves are completed, the renovation of Building 28 and the demolition of PEP City can begin.

PEP City demolition will begin in February 2011 and is scheduled to be completed by Spring 2011; shortly thereafter, construction will begin on the new Research Support Building 52, which will take PEP City's place. Building 28 renovations will also begin in early 2011, and are scheduled to be completed in early autumn 2011. At this time, the occupants of Building 3 and some of the occupants of Building 41 will move into the newly renovated Building 28. When the Research Support Building 52 is completed in late 2012, the occupants of Building 280 and some additional Building B41 occupants will move to this new space. The remaining Building 41 occupants will temporarily move into either Building 28 or Building 280. (See the table below for a timeline of these moves.)

Once everyone is out of Building 41—in early 2013—renovation on that structure will begin. When it completes in Spring 2014, the occupants of the Research Support Building 52 and Building 28 will move into Building B41, and the Accelerator Directorate will relocate to the Research Support Building 52.

"These moves are all interdependent, and if even a single move is delayed, it has the ability to impact the overall schedule," Herman said. "We ask for everyone's cooperation through this."

Herman said he and his crew are doing everything they can to minimize interruptions to ongoing work and to keep everyone at SLAC notified of the project's status. This communication push kicked off last week with the first project presentation to managers in the Particle Physics and Astrophysics Directorate. Presentations will be made to the Accelerator, LCLS, Photon Science and Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource directorates in the next two weeks. In addition, "town hall" and less formal "coffee klatch" meetings will be announced in SLAC Today in the coming weeks; these meetings will be open to all staff, offering a chance to both learn more about the project and pose questions to the project staff.

The RSB project team will also launch a website early next month. This site will include up-to-date information about the project's progress, as well as detailed information about the new buildings.

"Employee safety and the continuity of work throughout this entire movement is the laboratory’s number-one priority," Herman said. "A big part of this is planning, and we are working hard to keep everyone affected up-to-date as to the status of the project."

Milestone DescriptionEstimated Date
B901 completeApr 2010
B280 occupants move into B901July 2010
PEP City & B28 occupants move into B35, 41, 50, 280July 2010
PEP City demolition begins Feb 2011
B28 renovation beginsJan 2011
PEP City demolition completesSpring 2011
B52 construction beginsSpring 2011
B28 renovation completesAutumn 2011
B41 & B3 occupants move into B28Autumn 2011
B52 construction completesAutumn 2012
B280 & some B41 occupants move into B52Winter 2012
Remaining B41 occupants move into B28Winter 2012
B41 renovation beginsEarly 2013
B41 renovation completesSpring 2014
B52 and B28 occupants move into B41Summer 2014
Accelerator Directorate moves into B52Summer 2014

—Kelen Tuttle
  SLAC Today, May 25, 2010