See Daily Pictures of the Demolition

This month, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science takes a step closer to realizing an important goal; replacing the School's Engineering I building with a state-of-the-art facility capable of supporting the School's mission of teaching, research and service.

Engineering 1 is set for demolition Dec. 17.

Construction is set to begin December 17, with the controlled demolition of the old facility's east wing, called Unit 1B. Its replacement is scheduled to be completed by March 2006. A second wing will then replace the remaining Unit 1A and in the final phase a third wing will be constructed, totaling more than 150,000 assignable square feet.

The School's faculty, staff and other interested onlookers will gather atop the Engineering IV building at 9:00 a.m. to witness the beginning of the demolition.

The original Engineering I building was constructed in two phases. Unit A, which measured 53,530 square feet, was built in 1950, followed by the 61,130 square-foot Unit B in 1951. At the time construction began, UCLA's Engineering School had 65 faculty members, a research staff of 55 and technicians and administrative staff numbering 87. By the end of the twentieth century, the two units, known collectively as Engineering 1, had become outdated, unable to support modern lab equipment or to provide a quality learning environment for students. Damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the building also required seismic upgrades.

A capital project to replace Engineering 1 was made possible with the passage of Proposition 47 on the November 5, 2002 ballot. The ballot measure, called the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act, provides the School with $24.9 million for a phased demolition and replacement of the existing building with a new complex housing modern research labs, functional instruction areas, office space and important safety and seismic upgrades. Additional funds necessary to complete the project will be raised in part through a capital campaign.

"As a research and teaching institution, the Engineering School's facilities must support the work of its faculty, staff and students with the most modern research and instructional space possible," said Vijay Dhir, dean of the UCLA School of Engineering. "I am excited that plans for the new engineering facility are moving forward. It will make an important addition to our existing state-of-the-art facilities in Boelter Hall and Engineering IV.

Engineering 1 is the Engineering School's oldest existing building

The occupants of Unit B were relocated in the spring. Unit A continues to house instruction, research and support programs of the departments of chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and materials science and engineering.

For faculty members who taught classes, operated labs or had offices in Engineering 1, the memories of their years spent in the 53-year-old building are many.

"The philosophy of the building was large-scale laboratory equipment," said Russell O'Neill, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor and dean of the Engineering School from 1974 to 1983. "It was built to house instructional labs."

The building originally had a large, two-story bay lab, where distillation columns, absorption towers, and other mass transfer equipment could be accommodated. There were also ports, about 3 x 4 feet in size, in the individual labs on the second and third floors. If an exceptionally tall column was required, the ports could be opened to allow vertical space from the ground floor to the roof of the building.

"It's a very interesting building," said William Van Vorst, professor of chemical engineering. "It's not well known, but Unit A was designed with chemical engineering in mind."

Over the years, the Engineering 1 building was home to a number of unusual and interesting features, including a wind tunnel, a rooftop smog production lab and an audio sensory depravation chamber. Beneath the building sat enormous tanks filled with water for use in hydraulics experiments.

"In one lab, there was a large diesel engine that would fill the office we're in right now," said O'Neill from his sixth-floor office in Boelter Hall. Van Vorst also recalls the engine. "That huge Nordberg diesel engine was the pride and joy of Professor Wendell Mason, who loved working in the labs," said Van Vorst. "Only trouble was, if he started the Nordberg, everyone else had to leave the building due to vibration and noise!"

In 1952, Professor A. F. Bush established a water treatment plant on the roof that he used as a teaching demonstration facility. It had all the treatment processes of a regular plant, from a trickling filter to an excess sludge process - only in miniature. A weir was installed soon after to pump wastewater to the rooftop treatment center, allowing for the study of wastewater reclamation.Prof. Al Bush's miniature water treatment plant.

Prof. Al Bush's miniature water treatment plant.

Another interesting feature was a so-called "strong room." The entire east wall of this room was solid concrete. An airplane wing could be fastened to the wall, and researchers using jacks would perform stress experiments.

In the early 1970s the Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering had a driving simulation room - a small garage with a movie screen fixed to one wall. Inside the garage sat an actual car that could be 'driven' without moving. Using actual road images from the Antelope Valley, the movie would speed up as the car accelerated. Researchers conducted studies on the effect of marijuana use on driving ability, among other experiments.

Engineering 1 had relatively few classrooms, but the large lab areas were used for both instruction and experimentation, and there was a strong student presence throughout the building. Several student groups occupied rooms, including the UCLA student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, who built their concrete canoes inside Engineering 1. For several years the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity ran its summer outreach programs for local school children from the building. University student volunteers would hold interactive workshops on science and engineering topics. They continue to operate such programs from Boelter Hall today.

While the Engineering 1 building has experienced change over the years, major renovations were rarely undertaken. According to Michael Stenstrom, professor of civil and environmental engineering, as far back as the 1970s, it was generally believed that the building was going to be torn down. This sometimes prevented upgrades to the building. Stenstrom acquired funding to install a distilled water system, but it was never actually built because it was assumed the building would soon be replaced.

When Stenstrom arrived to interview for a position at UCLA in 1977, he was shown a lab space in Engineering 1. "I was an environmental engineering researcher, a relatively new field at the time, and the lab space in Engineering 1 was not quite what I was expecting," said Stenstrom. "As I sat on a plane flying back to Chicago, all I could think was they must not want me to stay!" Stenstrom did decide to come to UCLA, however, and even moved his office to Engineering 1 in 1988.

Demolition begins on December 17, and is expected to continue for several weeks.

-Chris Sutton

11/17/03