In 1960, Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, and well-known architect Louis Kahn devised a strategic master plan for the 27-acre campus known as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Since then, the Institute ” and science itself ” has dramatically evolved.
That’s why staff at Salk proposed to update the master plan and build new scientific, housing and daycare facilities. The initial project, which was proposed in 2004 and subjected to an initial round of public review, was revised and a second draft environmental impact report (EIR) was released March 15, reflecting public input. Many neighboring residents in the La Jolla Farms development, however, remain strongly opposed.
“We wanted to preserve the open space and the canyon,” said resident Laura Wheeler, whose property directly borders the southern portion of Salk’s campus. “What we were hoping they [Salk] would do is take a look at the very valuable property that the city gave them and figure out that they needed to preserve that open space.”
In the mid-1980s, when the city asked Salk for a portion of land on the campus’s southern peninsula to build a pump station, it granted the Institute additional land on the northern peninsula as an exchange, according to Mark Rowson, the project’s lead architect with Latitude 33 Planning and Engineering.
The city also decided in 1989, when University City’s community plan was updated, to cap the Institute’s land usage at 500,000 square feet. Today, the campus utilizes about 300,000 square feet of that land.
As part of the update to the original tri-partite master plan that called for laboratory buildings, a meeting center and living quarters, Salk is now proposing to build the two latter components ” totaling $300 million ” to complete the plan and expand on the Institute’s remaining 200,000 square feet.
However, several residents who live directly adjacent to the southern peninsula think such an expansion should not take place on that portion of the campus, which is home to sensitive coastal canyons and biological resources. Many also believe the project will interfere with historical ocean-view corridors from the Institute’s main building.
“There are terns and other interesting animals that live on the mesa and canyons, and any time you build there’s runoff and it destroys everything,” Wheeler said. “It’s a magical place and I’m concerned it’s going to be completely changed forever.”
Rowson, however, argued that the project has been revised to lower the height of the daycare and housing facilities proposed for the southern peninsula, which would eliminate any potential view obstructions from Salk’s main building.
He also added that the new buildings would only affect about two acres of the southern peninsula’s environmentally sensitive lands.
“Obviously we are still causing some impacts to the biological resources on the southern peninsula,” Rowson said. “But we are enhancing the water quality runoff and the vernal pools on the northern part of the property, and have added a number of environmental benefits.
“When this project is built, it creates a net environmental benefit.”
The project also proposes to add additional trees to a eucalyptus grove near the main building, as well as to incorporate a planted roof on the northern parking garage that will provide cleaner water runoff, according to Rowson.
Another underground parking garage will be built as part of the 94,000-square-foot Torrey East Building, a scientific research center that will provide needed space for larger equipment and be accessible to all staff members, Rowson said.
A 115,000-square-foot community center building is also proposed for the northern peninsula. The site for the building now houses an aboveground parking lot.
The project’s original plans for the community center blocked a view corridor for pedestrians and motorist traveling along the North Torrey Pines Road, which leads to Torrey Pines State Park Reserve.
Funding for the project has not yet been secured and a schedule for construction has not yet been established, according to Rowson. The project will go before San Diego’s Planning Commission and City Council this fall.
The large expansion will meet the Institute’s goal of providing additional space for its 1,200 staff members and will help ensure that it has the technology and amenities to compete with surrounding scientific research facilities, according to Gary Van Gerpen, senior director of facility services at the Institute.
“The labs right now are very crowded and we have people working off-site,” Van Gerpen said. “Our goal is to keep Salk a community and bring the people back on-site. It is critical that we get more space. There is very little space right now for people to grow into.”
Wheeler, who hopes to use the 45-day review period to sort through the draft EIR and make sense of the newly configured project, said she and other residents are willing to support the project if the Institute withdraws its plans to build on the southern peninsula.
“We still have all the same concerns we’ve had all along,” Wheeler said. “There is hardly any open canyon space in California anymore and it’s heartbreaking. When it’s gone, it’s gone forever. We’re hoping that they [Salk] would respect that by leaving it open.”
For more information about the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, visit www.salk.edu. Copies of the draft EIR for the Salk Institute master plan update are available at the Institute or by calling the city’s Development Services Department, (619) 446-5460.