Science Center Helps Shift Irvine Development Focus Toward UCI
The announcement Monday of plans to build a West Coast Study Center of the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering across the street from UC Irvine, on acreage donated by the Irvine Co., is the latest in a series of moves in which the company--Orange County’s largest landowner--has helped shift the city of Irvine’s developmental center of gravity back toward the campus area.
Funds for construction and endowment of the $20-million facility are being provided by philanthropist and scientific pioneer Arnold O. Beckman and his wife, Mabel.
As Richard Sim, president of the Irvine Co.’s industrial, research and development division, put it, the site for the Beckman Center is one “we have long thought of as an ideal place to pursue, advance and apply scientific and technological knowledge.” He added: “It’s certainly in a good neighborhood.”
Speaking at the same Irvine Hilton press conference, Dr. Frank Press, president of the National Academy, echoed that sentiment, pointing out that “the property stands on a knoll overlooking a planned 415-acre industrial, economic and research development community” that is a joint effort of UCI and the Irvine Co.
“Our hope,” Press said in a prepared statement, “is that the Beckman Center will be a great magnet for science, technology and medicine in the West that can join forces with the academy headquarters in the East in marshaling the full resources of the science and technology community to the solution of some of the nation’s most pressing concerns.”
A quarter of a century ago, establishment of a major university was a keystone in plans by the Irvine Ranch to transform itself from an agricultural enterprise into a residential and commercial developer. The city of Irvine now has a population of more than 80,000, UCI has a student body of 13,000 and the privately held Irvine Co. still owns 68,000 acres of county real estate. And once again, the university is expected to play a pivotal role as the company is poised to transform itself, this time into a commercial and high-technology industrial developer.
Coupled with recently unveiled plans by UCI and the Irvine Co. to develop 415 acres in the same area for a high-technology research park, the National Academy announcement suggests a direction for the area similar to that of Stanford University, which would be just fine with UCI. Sim said Monday that he expects a joint land-use plan for the area to be unveiled by January.
The Stanford model is particularly attractive to UCI administrators, who have been using the comparison for the last two years. The private university in Palo Alto began leasing parcels of its 8,100-acre campus in 1951. In recent years, Stanford has been earning about $9 million annually from more than 50 companies that lease ground from the 660-acre Stanford Research Parkand from a shopping center and office complex developed by the university. To UCI, which has undeveloped campus acreage but no independent endowment, such an arrangement would be ideal.
