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Courtesy of Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science
Researchers prepare an experiment in Engineering 1.
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falling under the wrecking ball
Engineering 1 was home to campus visionaries
BY chris sutton
UCLA Today
For five decades, the unassuming Engineering 1 Building was a
unique research site on campus where scientists could launch large-scale,
visionary experiments on smog, transportation, solar energy and
a host of other topics.
On its rooftop, scientists once created smog in a plastic wind
tunnel to study its effects. The building once housed Professor
Andrew Charwat’s 23-foot-high model of a floating power station
for generating electricity from the oceans. His mist flow cycle
unit reached two stories high inside the building. To accommodate
other experiments — in hydraulics, for example — enormous
tanks filled with water were located under the structure.
Many of these research adventures came to mind Dec. 17 when 80
faculty, staff and students from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering
and Applied Science gathered to watch a 3,000-pound wrecking ball
slam repeatedly into the building’s east wing, beginning the
first phase of its demolition. People on adjacent rooftops videotaped
the event.
William Van Vorst, professor of chemical engineering, recalled
the huge, office-size diesel engine that was once there. “That
huge Nordberg diesel engine was the pride and joy of Professor Wendell
Mason, who loved working in the labs,” Van Vorst said. “Only
trouble was, if he started the Nordberg, everyone else had to leave
the building!”
In the early 1970s, the Institute of Transportation and Traffic
Engineering created a driving simulation room — a small garage
with a movie screen fixed to one wall. Inside sat an actual car
that could be “driven” without moving. Using road footage
filmed in 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.
But the building had outlived its usefulness. So by March 2006,
the first replacement building will be completed to better support
teaching and research. The entire facility will eventually consist
of three structures totaling more than 150,000 square feet. “It
will make an important addition to our existing state-of-the-art
facilities in Boelter Hall and Engineering IV,” said Dean
Vijay K. Dhir. Construction is being funded in part through Proposition
47, which voters passed in 2002.
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