City eyes old Rand site for Civic Center space
By PAM WIGHT Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN — Rand Corporation staff members and consultants soon will have more room to spread out and ponder when the venerable think tank finishes moving into its new premises next month.
Rand’s new five-story corporate headquarters building was erected right next door to its current two-story residence, located across the street from Santa Monica City Hall. The think tank has occupied its old digs since 1953, but plans for an eventual move have taken two decades to come to fruition following numerous rounds of land negotiations with City Hall over the downtown property.
The corporation is completing its relocation on a weekend-by-weekend basis, according to Tina Rodriguez, the project’s development administrator. Part of the development agreement between the city and Rand was for the company to complete a demolition plan detailing the process of cleaning out the old building. The city expects the plan from Rand before the end of the year, said Rodriguez.
“A lot of work must be done to prepare the building for demolition,” acknowledges Iao Katagiri, Rand’s Director of Community Relations. “They must clean out old fixtures and furniture for recycling, then deal with asbestos and other hazardous materials before they can begin to demolish it.”
Katagiri added that demolition probably won’t get underway until late 2005.
Once the land is cleared, the city has plans for an expanded Civic Center that will include open space, residential housing, an arboretum and a soccer field near Pico Boulevard and 4th Street, said Rodriguez.
A “Civic Center Specific Plan” was drawn up following a process of meetings and workshops that welcomed input from the community. The plan was part of the development agreement created when the sale of the Rand property was being finalized. The environmental impact report was recently completed and a draft of the Civic Center Specific Plan is expected to go to the City Council and planning commission for approval in early 2005, according to Andy Able, Deputy Director of Community Planning Development.
The new fish-shaped headquarters will accommodate Rand’s 1,100 employees in a structure with approximately 19,000 additional square feet than the old building. Its unique shape was determined, in part, by the constraints of the parcel of land where it sits, between a storm drain and the curve of Main Street.
The structure — designed to encourage random encounters between employees to create the exchange of ideas — contains open spaces between destinations and designs internal traffic flow into those areas.
One of the primary reasons for Rand’s eventual relocation was the nearly $5 million in structural damage done to the old building by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, according to the company’s Web site. Most of the destruction was limited to the outside of the building and to equipment, but the quake left the structural integrity intact. However, rather than repairing the old building, the company found it could build a new one for approximately the same cost — $72 million.
Project RAND (Research and Development) was originally created In December 1945 to assist in the military’s research and development. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank specializing in energy, environmental issues, health care, national security, public safety, science, technology, education, transportation and substance abuse problems, among other issues. Among those serving on the company’s board in past years are Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill.
In addition to Santa Monica, Rand also has offices in the Washington, D.C. area, Germany, England and The Netherlands.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 16, 2004. Read the original PDF.