Local : Hitachi, UCI Begin Joint Venture

After a traditional Japanese ceremony to purify the land, ground was broken this morning on the $12-million Hitachi Chemical Research Center to be built on the UC Irvine campus.

The 40,000-square-foot building, scheduled to be completed in the spring of 1990, will be used jointly by Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., a diverse Tokyo-based chemical manufacturer, and the university under an agreement approved in March by the UC Board of Regents.

Appearing at the two-hour ground-breaking event were Hitachi Chemical President Dr. Ryoji Yokoyama, UCI Chancellor Jack Peltason and Kenneth Gibson, director of the California Department of Commerce. Before the first dirt was shoveled, a ceremony to purify the building site was conducted by a priest from the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.

By agreement, the university is providing rent-free land to Hitachi for the research center. UC Irvine will use the ground floor of the building for research and office space. Hitachi will occupy the top two floors of the building for the 40-year term of the lease, after which the entire building will become property of the University of California.