UCSF Mission Bay Comes to Life

UCSF has accomplished at Mission Bay a monumental feat - signaling its scientific renaissance and the spectacular revitalization of a San Francisco neighborhood. In short, UCSF Mission Bay has become a new community for life. Already, 1,700 faculty, scholars, students and staff work, study and live on the campus, where three research buildings, a community center, housing complex and two parking garages surround a 3.2-acre campus green. This Friday, Oct. 28, the campus community is invited to celebrate UCSF's success - a labor of love and a permanent legacy of the power of private and public partnerships. For more details about the event, including discounted lunch, parking and transportation, go here. For complete coverage of the progress at UCSF Mission Bay, see these stories:

• Community Center Becomes Heart of UCSF
• Housing Turns Campus into Community
• Finding Pleasure in Science
• QB3: An Incubator for Innovation
• Public Art Enhances Life at Mission Bay

The transformation of UCSF Mission Bay into a thriving life sciences community has far outpaced original expectations since the 1999 groundbreaking for Genentech Hall. To date, UCSF has developed half, or 1.3 million gross square feet, of the projected 2.65 million gross square feet at full build-out of the Mission Bay campus. A child care center and more research buildings are on the way. "Mission Bay has a newly energized atmosphere to it," says Elizabeth Blackburn, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. "It feels like the spirit of California at its best - a sense of possibilities." In 2005 alone, UCSF will have opened:

• Headquarters of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research, or QB3, a cooperative venture among UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and private industry to integrate physical, mathematical and engineering sciences to create powerful new techniques for attacking complex biological problems;
• The Mission Bay Community Center, a four-story building designed to be the campus hub for recreational, cultural, educational and social activities;
• A 431-unit housing complex, where more than 750 students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members will live; and
• Two parking garages with 1,422 stalls plus bicycle storage.

UCSF has reached this historic milestone, thanks to literally thousands of faculty, staff, students, donors, neighbors, and civic and business leaders who have collectively contributed to the campus. "As major elements of the first phase of UCSF Mission Bay near completion, I am gratified to see what UCSF has accomplished and deeply grateful to members of the campus community and the community at large who have contributed to the development of UCSF Mission Bay," says Chancellor Mike Bishop. "Your hard work, commitment and foresight are evident in what is standing and what is happening on the formerly abandoned 43 acres of land. The impact of this vision on scientific research, on the local economy and toward the revitalization of this neighborhood will be felt for many years to come." Keith Yamamoto, executive vice dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, says that while Mission Bay represents a new chapter in UCSF's 141-year history, the story also includes an exciting reinvigoration of research and teaching programs at other campus locations. "UCSF will continue to advance by recruiting new scientists while maintaining the richness of our existing programs," he says. Mission Bay enables development at all over our sites: We are creating new programs at Parnassus Heights, with extensive renovation and construction of new space, and we are refining and expanding programs at Mount Zion."

Full Circle

In many ways, UCSF has come full circle. The University established itself at its flagship 107-acre campus at Parnassus Heights with the donation of land by then Mayor Adolph Sutro. The donation of 30 acres from Catellus Development Corp. and 13 acres from the City and County of San Francisco under then Mayor Willie Brown proved to be another pivotal turning point for UCSF. In a landmark deal between Nelson Rising, CEO of Catellus, then Mayor Willie Brown and Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding, UCSF achieved the unfathomable - acquiring 43 acres of San Francisco real estate at no cost. Helping negotiate this transaction was UCSF volunteer Robert Burke, who received the UCSF Medal for his assistance. The donation of land - a gift valued at well over $170 million - helped keep the University from expanding outside the city and jump-started the development of the new campus. This agreement was a huge step on a journey that has been paved by the generosity of the philanthropic community, which has donated more than $300 million of the $800 million-plus construction costs at the new campus so far. In fact, about $60 million of the $70 million-plus total project cost of the community center was provided by private donations. The sheer magnitude of this gift giving for construction represents a sea change for UCSF, which before Mission Bay traditionally raised money almost exclusively for research initiatives. Other than onetime allocations from the state - including $21.4 million from a 1999 voter-approved bond measure that went toward Genentech Hall and $100 million for QB3 divided among UCSF and its two sister campuses as part of the California Institutes for Science and Innovation created under then Gov. Gray Davis - UCSF has pieced together a complex financing plan to pay for new construction. The financing plan calls for using private gifts and grants from individual philanthropists, corporations and private foundations, external financing, campus reserves and other auxiliary revenues, such as income from housing and parking, to pay for design and construction. "We are really pleased with the progress at UCSF Mission Bay," Spaulding says. "In 2005, we have established a campus with a vital scientific presence, and we have opened other buildings we didn't even dream about, like housing. I am also very excited about the opening of the campus community center, which is designed to support the full 43-acre build-out of the campus and to serve the surrounding community. By making it available to the general public, we are really contributing to the creation of the Mission Bay neighborhood. We can have our cake and eat it too."

Community Benefits

Garnering continued support for UCSF's expansion in the future depends on its ability to demonstrate value to the community, campus officials say. The new campus doubles the University's space to expand its life sciences research and education - missions dedicated to ultimately improving the health of humanity. But even beyond the biomedical breakthroughs in basic science, UCSF Mission Bay is a boon for the community, enhancing the quality of life for the campus and community at large. Among recent developments:

• UCSF welcomed on August 11 the first wave of students, postdoctoral fellows, residents and faculty into the new housing complex, which offers affordable, comfortable and conveniently located apartments at Mission Bay. More than 200 people have already moved into their new apartments. The addition of 431 apartments helps meet the huge demand for affordable housing in the notoriously high-priced city.
• UCSF opened on October 1 the highly anticipated Mission Bay Community Center - an architectural icon awash in vibrant colors that ignite the spirit. Designed by architects Ricardo and Victor Legorreta, this building itself is a destination for fitness and recreation, public education, and cultural arts and events. Already, some 2,500 memberships to the fully equipped Bakar Fitness & Recreation Center have been sold, with community members making up about 60 percent of the membership.
• During a luncheon ceremony on October 11, the UCSF Community Construction Workforce Program recognized contractors, community agencies such as the Young Community Developers and Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, and the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council as partners in putting more San Franciscans to work. San Francisco residents made up at least 20 percent of the apprentices who worked on the last three buildings opened at Mission Bay.
• Through UCSF Community Partnerships Program, UCSF is working with community partners, including SFWorks and City College of San Francisco, to provide job training, paid internships and business opportunities for neighbors in the areas surrounding Mission Bay. In the past year, the program has provided job opportunities for more than 50 residents. Small disadvantaged businesses participating in the programs realized $75,000 in revenues from contracts with the University in the last fiscal year.
• UCSF Mission Bay is creating new jobs and boosting the local economy. Nearly 200 employees have been hired to fill jobs ranging from an associate director of QB3 to a mail processor at Mission Bay. Many more jobs must be filled, including fitness center membership coordinators, staff research associates, custodians and laboratory assistants. At full build-out, the campus will draw about 9,100 people to work and study there, and construction alone is estimated to total more than $1.5 billion over the next decade.
• And as a leader on the frontier of biomedical innovation, UCSF Mission Bay is becoming a magnet for established and emerging biotech companies and other research enterprises, including the new headquarters of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes and others looking to benefit from the close proximity to one of the nation's top research universities.

Photo by Lisa Cisneros