Richmond Field Station

Last updated
Richmond Field Station
Richmond Field Station.jpg
RFS is bounded approximately by Richmond Bay (on the south), Interstate 580 (north), S 46th St (east), and Marina Bay Pkwy and Regatta Blvd (west)
Location
Richmond Field Station
1301 South 46th St
Richmond, California
Coordinates 37°54′54″N122°20′06″W / 37.915°N 122.335°W / 37.915; -122.335 Coordinates: 37°54′54″N122°20′06″W / 37.915°N 122.335°W / 37.915; -122.335
Information
Former name
    • Richmond Bay Campus
    • Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay
Affiliation University of California, Berkeley

The Richmond Field Station (RFS) is a satellite campus of the University of California, Berkeley located in Richmond, California. The name was changed to the Richmond Bay Campus (RBC) in 2012 and then Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay (BGC) in October 2014, reflecting plans to expand the site to address global issues, first as a second campus for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), then as an expansion of the main campus in Berkeley itself. In 2016, the expansion plans were suspended and the name reverted to Richmond Field Station.

Contents

Site

The Richmond Field Station is in the South Shoreline neighborhood of Richmond, just north of Albany and west/south of I-580, approximately 15–20 minutes away from the main campus in Berkeley by car. The site is 125 acres (51 ha) in total, including the adjacent Regatta Industrial Center purchased by the University. [1] There are three distinct habitats on site: the Upland Area, Transition Area, and Western Stege Marsh. [2] : 3  The marsh area is further subdivided into low, middle, and high salt marshes and tidal wetlands with native species including the endangered California clapper rail. [2] : 6 

A wooden seawall was constructed along the tidal mudflat prior to 1950, including a wooden pier that extended south, possibly before the acqusition of the site by California Cap. [2] : 9  The Stege Marsh was formed after the Southern Pacific Railroad Company added fill to the site to build a rail spur in 1959. [2] : 8 

History

Native Americans used the site for fishing and shellfish harvesting, as evidenced by the presence of neighboring shellmounds, some of which were removed in 1915 for the development of the Harborgate tract in Richmond. [2] : 7  It was part of the Rancho San Pablo land grant given to Francisco Maria Castro in 1823, which was subsequently subdivided and sold in the 1850s. One of the owners was Richard Stege, who raised bullfrogs for sale to San Francisco restaurants. [2] : 7–8  By the 1880s, the site was acquired by the California Cap Company, which manufactured explosives and blasting shells alongside smaller companies such as the U.S. Briquette Company and Pacific Cartridge Company. California Cap ceased operations in 1948. [2] : 8  Explosive manufacturing activities included the production of mercury fulminate and has resulted in mercury contamination at the site. [2] : 11 

The first 100 acres (40 ha) of what would become Richmond Field Station were acquired from California Cap in 1950; [2] : 2  the western section (between Regatta Blvd and Avocet Wy) was acquired in 1951. [2] : 8  An additional 25-acre (10 ha) parcel (formerly the neighboring Regatta Industrial Center, just west of the original site) was acquired after 2008. [1]

Starting from the 1950s, UC Berkeley conducted large-scale engineering research at RFS for projects which were not suited for the central campus in Berkeley, including research in solid waste and sewage, transportation and lighting, and beach erosion. [2] : 12  For sanitary engineering research, the laboratory established at RFS has been called the Sanitary Engineering Research Laboratory, Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Health Research Laboratory, and Environmental Engineering and Health Sciences Laboratory; its activities included construction of a rectangular oxidation pond, a circular digester, and treatment of chicken wastes, which included an on-site chicken coop. [2] : 13  RFS also includes the Earthquake Engineering Research Center, with a large earthquake shaking table to simulate seismic events. [2] : 14  In addition, the Northern Regional Library Facility is located at RFS; NRLF is a cooperative library storage facility encompassing more than 4.7 million items in three buildings, storing some of the holdings of the libraries of the University of California campuses in northern California, including Berkeley, Davis, Merced, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and the California State Library. [2] : 16 

Several tenants lease space at RFS from the University of California, most notably the U.S. EPA, which operates its Region 9 Laboratory at RFS. [2] : 21–22 

Second campus

On January 3, 2011, UC Berkeley announced a request for qualifications (RFQ), soliciting sites for a second campus for LBNL, requiring the new site to accommodate 2,000,000 sq ft gross (190,000 m2) of new research and development facilities; the RFQ included a caveat that UC had already identified Richmond Field Station as a suitable candidate site. [3] The city of Richmond responded by passing Resolution 10-11 on February 1, advocating for the second campus to be sited at RFS [4] after receiving numerous letters of support from the community. [5] Later that month, LBNL and UC Berkeley completed a conceputal plan for the second campus at RFS and issued a second RFQ for developers of its Richmond Field Station Campus Concept Plan on May 12. [1] : 3, 7  Subsequently, LBNL announced the second campus at RFS would be named the Richmond Bay Campus in January 2012, but budget cuts in 2013 forced them to scrap their plans. Despite the budget cuts, the Regents of the University of California approved the long-range development plan (LRDP) and environmental impact report for RBC in May 2014. [6] Under the LRDP,

UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced the proposed development would continue as the Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay on 29 October 2014. In an address to the Academic Senate, Dirks stated the new campus would serve as a research hub and education center to solve global problems in energy, medicine, economy, and environment. [7] The stated research mission was similar to that originally intended for the RBC. [8]

In August 2016, just before he resigned as chancellor, Dirks announced that the university would be suspending plans for the project. The name has been suspended as well and has returned to Richmond Field Station. [9]

Transportation

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in California, UC Berkeley operated a Bear Transit route between the main campus in Berkeley and RFS. The route was not resumed when campus operations restarted in June 2021, and public transit users were advised to take AC Transit route 79 to El Cerrito Plaza station, then transfer to route 71 and walk to RFS. AC Transit Route 74 also passed close to the RFS campus. [10]

Related Research Articles

University of California, San Francisco Public university in San Francisco, California

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and it is dedicated entirely to health science. It is a major center of medical and biological research and teaching.

University of California Public university system in California

The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, along with numerous research centers and academic abroad centers. The system is the state's land-grant university.

University of California, Berkeley Public university in Berkeley, California

The University of California, Berkeley is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant university and the first campus of the University of California system. Its fourteen colleges and schools offer over 350 degree programs and enroll some 31,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students. Berkeley is ranked among the world's top universities.

University of California, Davis Public university in Davis, California

The University of California, Davis is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institution was first founded as an agricultural branch of the system in 1905 and became the seventh campus of the University of California in 1959.

California State University Public university system in California, United States

The California State University is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public university system in the United States. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, with the other two being the University of California system and the California Community Colleges. The CSU System is incorporated as The Trustees of the California State University. The California State University system headquarters are in Long Beach, California.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory National laboratory located near Berkeley, California, USA

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that conducts scientific research on behalf of the Department of Energy. Located in the hills of Berkeley, California, the lab overlooks the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

UC Berkeley College of Engineering

The College of Engineering is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 1931, the college is considered among the most prestigious engineering schools in the world, ranked third by U.S. News & World Report and with an acceptance rate of 8%. Berkeley Engineering is particularly well known for producing many successful entrepreneurs; among its alumni are co-founders and CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world, including Apple, Boeing, Google, Intel, and Tesla.

Owen Chamberlain American physicist

Owen Chamberlain was an American physicist who shared with Emilio Segrè the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the antiproton, a sub-atomic antiparticle.

Department of Plant and Microbial Biology

The Department of Plant & Microbial Biology is an academic department in the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. The department conducts extensive research, provides undergraduate and graduate programs, and educates students in the fields of plant and microbial sciences with 43 department faculty members.

Space Sciences Laboratory

The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) of the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 1959, the laboratory is located in the Berkeley Hills above the university campus. It has developed and continues to develop many projects in the space sciences, including the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI@home).

El Cerrito Plaza station Rapid transit station in San Francisco Bay Area

El Cerrito Plaza is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in El Cerrito, California, located adjacent to the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center. It primarily serves southern El Cerrito, northern Albany, and Kensington, along with nearby portions of Berkeley and Richmond. Nearly identical in form to El Cerrito del Norte station, El Cerrito Plaza station has two side platforms serving the line's two elevated tracks, with a fare lobby underneath. The Ohlone Greenway runs through the station area.

Campus Bay is an 87-acre (350,000 m2) property in the city of Richmond, California located off Interstate 580 (California), and situated between the San Francisco Bay, the Richmond Annex, and Point Isabel neighborhoods. The area receives its name from its proximity to the UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station.

California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) is a collaboration between the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), UC Berkeley, other public and private academic institutions, and private industry. PATH's mission: applying advanced technology to increase highway capacity and safety, and to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, and energy consumption. The organization recently celebrated its twentieth year.

Bear Transit

Bear Transit is the bus service operated by the Department of Parking and Transportation of the University of California, Berkeley. Its fleet includes a combination of shuttle vans and passenger buses, with all of its passenger buses formerly owned by AC Transit. In the early 2000s the passenger buses used were refurbished by AC Transit. Bear Transit connects various areas of the university, including student housing, the main campus, the Hill area, Downtown Berkeley, and distant locations such as Lawrence Hall of Science in the East Bay Hills and the Clark Kerr Campus south of the main campus. It also provides shuttle service to the Richmond Field Station (RFS), a research facility also owned by the University, located in Richmond.

Meeker Slough is a slough in Richmond, California, formed by a creek of the same name and drains into the Richmond Inner Harbor, part of San Francisco Bay. The area lies between modern tract housing in the Marina Bay neighborhood and the University of California, Berkeley Richmond Field Station's portion of Western Stege Marsh, which has been cleaned of legacy industrial contamination and restored to a productive tidal salt marsh home to the endangered California Ridgway's rail. The slough is across from Stege Marsh from which Baxter Creek drains across from a small bay they both form known as Campus Bay. The site is currently undergoing wetlands restoration.

Stege Marsh, also known as the South Richmond Marshes, is a tidal marshland wetlands area in Richmond, California in western Contra Costa County.

Campus Bay is a baylet of the Richmond Inner Harbor in Richmond, California formed by conflicting drainage on opposite ends from Meeker Slough Creek and Baxter Creek's deltas Meeker Slough and Stege Marsh. The area is formed of intertidal mud flats which are generally submerged except for the lowest of tides. The baylet borders the Campus Bay neighborhood and is a highly environmentally sensitive area due to being one of the few remaining wetlands areas in the San Francisco Bay and from pollution from a former UC Berkeley Field Station.

The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is a nonprofit research and technology commercialization institute affiliated with three campuses of the University of California in the San Francisco Bay Area: Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. QB3's domain is the quantitative biosciences: areas of biology in which advances are chiefly made by scientists applying techniques from physics, chemistry, engineering, and computer science.

LeConte Hall United States historic place

LeConte Hall is the former name of a building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, which is home to the physics department. LeConte Hall was one of the largest physics buildings in the world at the time it was opened in 1924, and was also the site of the first atom collider, built by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1931.

The Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics (BCTP) is a research center for theoretical particle physics, cosmology, string theory and quantum gravity at the University of California at Berkeley.

References

  1. 1 2 3 University of California, Berkeley, Real Estate Services (May 24, 2011). "Request for Qualifications for Developers for the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) Second Campus at the Richmond Field Station". City of Richmond, California. Retrieved 17 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Tetra Tech EM Inc (November 21, 2008). "1.0 Introduction and Background" (PDF). Current Conditions Report: University of California, Berkeley; Richmond Field Station, Richmond, California (Report). Office of Environment, Health & Safety, University of California, Berkeley. pp. 1–83. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  3. ↑ Crosby, Laura B (January 3, 2011). "Request for Qualifications (RFQ) #0103: LBNL Second Campus". City of Richmond, California. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  4. ↑ "Resolution No. 10-11: A resolution authorizing the City Manager to respond to the University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory request for qualifications for a second campus". City of Richmond, California. February 1, 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  5. ↑ "LBNL letters of support". City of Richmond, California. February 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  6. ↑ "Major milestone for Richmond Bay Campus" (Press release). UC Berkeley Public Affairs. May 22, 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  7. ↑ Stalcup, Sierra (October 29, 2014). "Richmond Bay Campus to be transformed into Berkeley Global Campus". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  8. ↑ "Berkeley Global Campus: a new, bolder vision for Richmond Bay" (Press release). UC Berkeley Public Affairs. October 30, 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  9. ↑ Tucker, Jill (August 26, 2016). "UC Berkeley suspends plans to build Global Campus in Richmond". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  10. ↑ "Bear Transit - RFS Route (Richmond Field Station) Discontinued". University of California, Berkeley, Parking and Transportation. May 7, 2021. Retrieved 17 February 2022.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.