MEDICAL : After Japanese Purification Ceremony, Hitachi Breaks Ground for UCI Center

Following a traditional Japanese ceremony to purify the land, ground was broken Monday 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 University of California Board of Regents.

Appearing at the 2-hour ceremony were Hitachi Chemical President Dr. Ryoji Yokoyama, UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason, UCI College of Medicine Dean Ted Quilligan and Kenneth Gibson, director of the California Department of Commerce.

A Shinto ceremony to purify the building site was conducted by three priests from the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. By Japanese tradition, a cone of dirt was moved with a plow and a hoe. In recognition of the U.S. ground-breaking tradition, a shovel was also used in the ceremony.

The university is providing rent-free land to Hitachi for the center. In return, 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 UC property.