The design for UCSF’s second major site at Mission Bay is now on the drawing board as Bay Area Life Sciences Alliance (BALSA), a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to fostering life sciences and biotechnology in the region, is challenging the world’s top architectural and planning firms to give it their best shot.

The new site will ease the existing crowdedness at Parnassus, while allowing the University to expand and consolidate research in an environment that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.

“In the past, due to the way state construction funding has come to us, UCSF has had to plan on a building by building basis. This has resulted in a hodgepodge of building designs and placement,” says Bruce Spaulding, vice chancellor of advancement and planning. And although the Mission Bay campus will be constructed over a period of time, it will be guided by a singular design. “We are very grateful to BALSA’s effort to give us an opportunity to master plan a stunning new campus,” Spaulding says.

Ten internationally renowned architectural firms are expected to present plans next week to a committee comprised of local architects and planners, UCSF faculty, and neighborhood representatives. The committee will select five finalists, each of whom will partner with the San Francisco architecture firm of their choice to develop three-dimensional design models.

In October, the models will be made available for public viewing and comment. A nine-person jury will select one winner that will be commissioned to prepare a detailed master plan. The project calls for 2.65 million square feet of biomedical laboratory, instructional and administrative space located on 43 acres of property donated by the Catellus Development Corp. and the City and County of San Francisco. Full buildout of the site will be completed in phases.

“A key objective of the master plan is the creation of interactive spaces — inside buildings and in the ‘people places’ between buildings — the connecting places where people ‘run into’ each other and share information,” says Clifford Graves, former executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and president of BALSA.

In addition to the creation of state-of-the-art laboratory space, plans for Mission Bay call for a high-speed information network to link its occupants to one another and to other UCSF sites, on-site food services, indoor and outdoor recreation and fitness facilities, and child care.

Other essential services will be located nearby as Catellus plans to develop housing units, retail and commercial ventures. No clinical facilities are planned for the new site. Campus officials remain committed to open communication with the community during planning and development.

BALSA was established last year under the leadership of Donald G. Fisher, chairman of The Gap Inc., and William J. Rutter, co-founder of Chiron Corporation and former chair of the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Its mission began after a report commissioned by the San Francisco Partnership, a public-private venture devoted to helping businesses develop in San Francisco, identified life sciences, multi-media and financial services as three businesses the city should encourage. That report was presented to Mayor Willie Brown’s Economic Summit last fall.

1st appeared 8/04/97