It might not be the flagship building of UCSF--in fact, you might not even know where it is-- but Mission Center is, unarguably, a vital part of the University. At Folsom and 15th Streets, this six-story, 291,000 square foot building is only three miles from the Parnassus campus, yet it experiences a different, some would say sunnier, climate. You won’t see patients entering and exiting its doors, ambulances racing through its parking lot, or students assembling in lecture halls. What you will find instead are over 1,000 staff toiling in a variety of capacities: making sure employees, and the hospitals, get paid, conducting important medical research, and even making videos.

Partially UCSF-owned since 1977 and fully owned since 1989, the building is in a continual state of development. Major capital improvements are being made so the University can fulfill its goal of having 100 percent occupancy of the building in 1998 (current occupancy stands at 92 percent). Departments will be moving to and from Mission Center in the next year to relieve overcrowding at Parnassus and streamline processes, said Diane Kay of Campus Planning.

The University is also planning to move some departments to Mission Center to consolidate units and reduce lease expenses where possible. For example, the reprographics unit, which currently leases space in South San Francisco, will move to Mission Center, where it will have access to a loading dock and save money on leasing costs. "We're approaching the reality of being able to fully utilize the building, which is what the chancellor charged us to do," Kay said.

One department slated for a move away from Mission Center is the Office of Continuing Medical Education, which was relocated from Parnassus three years ago. Program representative Janet Johnson said she’ll be sad to leave Mission Center not only because her commute from Walnut Creek, where she lives, to her future office, at Laurel Heights, will be significantly longer, but also because she enjoys the people in the building. “I love working here,” she said. “The people are very friendly.”

The biggest drawback of working at Mission Center, Johnson said, is the isolation from the rest of UCSF. “We don’t have run-in contact with the physicians whom we work with,” she said. “A couple of programs happened in the past because the doctors knew we existed and now we’re sort of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.”

Much of the building's space is occupied by campus and Medical Center administrative units such as accounting departments and back-office support for the hospitals. The second floor, with laboratories for radiation oncology and microbiology and immunology, animal care facilities and a library, is dedicated to research. Nobel winner Stanley Prusiner will temporarily relocate to Mission Center this winter while his Parnassus laboratory is being renovated.

Although most of the tenants are UCSF departments, a few outside companies, including TCI cable, lease space. TCI tapes its public access television programs on the Mission Center's sixth floor. Across the hall from TCI is UCSF's own video department. Instructional & Research Technical Support Services employees edit videos of surgeries and lectures and provide audio/visual support to the Mission Center. They also provide simulcasts of campus meetings, such as the Oct. 8 Chancellor's state-of-the-campus address, contributing to a sense of cohesiveness with other campus locations. The Mail Services on the first floor handle more than 11 million pieces of mail a year, including nearly 2 million pieces of intercampus mail. Parking and Transportation, a department which literally connects employees to the other UCSF sites, is also located at Mission Center.

Mission Center's many common areas, with vending machines, microwaves and furniture, are popular places for employees to have lunch and get to know each other. Employees have taken it upon themselves to create an additional common space: they voluntarily decorate and maintain a rooftop patio, with outdoor furniture, plants and flowers. This sunny and peaceful space contributes to what employees describe as a friendly and neighborly atmosphere at Mission Center.

What also makes Mission Center feel like a community is the child care center on the first floor. Opened in July 1996, the center, which replaced a former privately run facility, provides convenient daycare services to UCSF employees as well as to Mission area residents. The trellised outdoor playground is situated directly across from a picnic area, where employees eat, read and chat among picnic benches and shade trees.

Within walking distance of ethnic eateries, shops, and a fitness center and accessible via BART, the location might be considered ideal. However, the building itself is in need of some improvements, which are either already under way or planned for the near future. Corridor walls, elevator shafts, as well as emergency exits, are being upgraded to improve safety and disability access is being enhanced. And air quality upgrades are almost complete-- a $3 million filtration and ventilation system upgrade was implemented in response to employee complaints. "Temperature and air quality complaints have dramatically decreased," said Katy Irwin, building manager.

Some amenities and cosmetic improvements are also in the works. A feasibility study for a deli, serving fresh sandwiches made on-site, beverages and pastries is in progress. The first floor lobby is slated for a fresh coat of paint and the exterior will receive landscape improvements as well.

Campus police call Mission Center their home, perhaps contributing to the building's safety. "We change shifts here and we park police cars in the lot," said Lieutenant John Fox. "It deters crime." Fox said these factors, plus tightly controlled access to the facility, contribute to the fact that although the Mission Center building is in a higher crime area than the Parnassus campus, there's actually less crime on the property.

The Mission Center houses a tight-knit group of employees, people who participate in campus events, such as the annual chili cook-off, and in each other’s lives. “When our department first moved here people recognized we were new,” Johnson recalled. “One person came rushing over to me with menus for good restaurants in the area.” As a member of Empact!, Johnson helps with campus parties and events and has noticed more involvement at Mission Center than at other campus sites. “A lot of people participate and come down to check things out, whereas on campus it’s easy not to do it,” she said. “The building does a lot of things together.”

By Paula Murphy

1st appeared 10/13/97

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