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We used to do R&D, now we watch the landscape!

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By scooby
Anonymously contributed:

When I came to this place 30 plus years ago there was hardly any landscaping. Didn't bother me. Didn't bother anyone else I worked with (unless they were just keeping mum).I don't think anyone really cared. We were there to do R&D, not admire the landscape. Today, it is a different story.I have no idea how much this beautification project cost or how much it will cost to maintain but I agree it is a serious waste of taxpayer money.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Faulty memory.

Landscaping has been making Livermore Valley and the Lab far more attractive for many years.

Looking our over the campus from on high, one can see a verdant forest of 20- 30- and 40- year old trees tower over most of the lab's square mile footprint. (The flocks of buzzards and hummingbirds love it)

The landscape around Lasers has been thoughtfully executed since Haussman and Emmett decided a first class program should look the part. Emmett picked the variety and location of the trees personally. (Appropriate for person who has over 100 varieties of apple trees on his spread.)

Magnetic Fusion followed suit when B543 was built, followed closely by the landscaping around the Computer center and later the procurement buildings. Teller Tech had the three large fields and the line of Eucalyptus trees along Greenville road. (Hey Ed, now that staging is complete, NIF promised to recreate those fields. We are waiting)

East Avenue has been lush under the Robineas and Eucalyptus for many years. B111 and B113 landscapes followed and are now a towering, fragrant and a peaceful counterpoint to the organizational chaos nearby.

In the 1980s and 1990s water treatment gave way to Lake Haussman (named for a wonderful guy). B132 Followed with the wonderful courtyards. Rest in the jasmine courtyard at dusk late in the spring....heaven on earth.

Sooo what I am saying is the lab has a wonderful tradition of trying to improve the local landscape. It is one of the reasons I haven't jumped ship. They do a terrific job, as you'd expect from a UC campus.

So NIF is just doing its part. And it will pay dividends to your grandchildren when they work late here 100 years from now.

As a 60-year old Bay Area native who hated to come through hot, dry boring Livermore as a kid on my way to Madera, I can say the folks here suprised and pleased me. The town, the lab and the valley are beautiful, because of smart urban planning.

You'd think it was run by the Swiss.

Keep up the beautiful work, perhaps LLNL will eventually become the 12th UC campus.
7/26/2009 10:29 PM
Anonymous said…
If you want to see an area where no money is spent on landscaping, check out the Sandia parking lot on East Avenue, across the street from B113 (and the former site of B212).

It would appear that there was a fear that many of the trees were getting ready to topple over. Instead of cutting them down, they roped off areas of the parking lot with red plastic fencing. So in that regard, they did spend a little money - on the fencing. As time has gone on, more parking spaces have been fenced off and now weeds are growing up in the cracks of the asphalt.

Besides the eyesore, it has drastically reduced the amount of parking in that lot.

Now this is a Sandia problem but since visitors to LLNL will usually not be seeing that portion of East Avenue, LLNL has no incentive to talk to Sandia about it. Plus, with B212 gone, maybe LLNL can start their own weed patch and get into completion with the parking lot.
7/27/2009 8:10 AM
Anonymous said…
I am sorry but urban planning has nothing to do with lab landscaping. I can tell that you don't remember that in the early days the only landscaping that existed between building 435 and the North fence was dirt. When Lasers came along there was some fast growing eucalyptus planted along with some lawn other than that there has been no significant landscaping except for the copious plating of drought tolerant shrubs like manzanita. What we have with NIF is in class by itself.
7/27/2009 12:58 PM
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