The world's most powerful, non-classified supercomputer occupies about 16,000 sf in a former Wells Fargo branch building that sits at the corner of 20th and Franklin streets, according to Ron Kolb, communications director for Lawrence Berkeley Lab.
In this new off-campus venture, the lab will occupy an additional 4,000 sf over the next two years giving the supercomputer facility full occupancy of the two lower floors in the four-story, 27,000 sf building. The third and fourth floors of the building will eventually be occupied by the University of California to house a digital library and computing support offices.
The supercomputer center is called the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center and is being run by Lawrence Berkeley lab for the US Department of Energy. The center will serve as a hub for scientists and researchers who will apply to use the computer to study everything from global warming to new energy generation technology.
Lab officials began looking for a space that could be used to house the NERSC home about three years ago. According to Kolb, developers went through a bidding process to provide a site within a 20-mile radius of the UC-Berkeley campus while meeting seismic guidelines and telecommunications needs for the center. A plus for the Oakland site, Kolb says, is its proximity to BART access.
Building landowner Encinal Broadway and CEO Peter Wang renovated the former bank building that had been empty since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. With the services of Turner Construction and San-Francisco-based KMD Architecture, the building was reduced to its steel skeleton, additional seismic reinforcement was added and a three-foot high-elevated floor was installed to accommodate the cables required by the computers.
The lab leased the site for a 10-year term. In addition to the computers, the center houses about 35 to 40 employees.
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