Fading into the sunset

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Major parts of Administration Building closing Friday

The Administration Building (SM-43), which for many years served as the anchor facility at Technical Area 3, is being prepared for eventual demolition, as most of the 51-year-old, four-story building closes this Friday.

The 315,000-square-foot Administration Building was first occupied in early 1956 and was home to about 1,000 people through most of its lifetime. In the 1990s, it was deemed no longer to be fit for use, and plans began for replacement and demolition. The Administration Building (SM-43) was initially planned as two separate buildings – “a General Laboratory and an Administration Building.” Ultimately the two were designed as one structure, with the west wing constructed for labs. The building was developed under very tight budget constraints. Documents from 1952 noted: “We are all charged with the responsibility to insure that the plan proposed is the most economical one possible, and that the facilities conform to the standards of ‘Spartan simplicity.’” Most recent occupants would agree that they achieved that goal. The building construction took less than two years and had a contract cost of about $5.9 million.

While the facility was named the Administration Building, many of the “administrative” functions were moved when the Otowi Building was constructed in 1982. Since that time, SM-43 has served the Lab in accommodating key mission and senior-management functions.

“Because of its systems and its structure, we needed to end its use, for safety of the occupants,” said Randy Parks of Infrastructure Planning (IP-DO). In response, the Department of Energy and Congress provided funds for construction of the National Security Sciences Building, which opened last year just north of the Administration Building.

The last of the Administration Building’s occupants are temporarily moving to D wing (east wing). It is the remainder of the building that is being closed forever to the work force. Demolition is scheduled to begin in 2009 and will take about two years to complete, said Parks.

Parks said employees who currently use certain hallways in the Administration Building won’t be able to once the large majority of the building is closed off. However, until the building is completely sealed off, a passageway will be provided for employees to use. “D-wing still will be available to staff who want to walk through it,” said Parks. In 2008, pedestrian pathways will be created and clearly marked for employees to walk around the demolition area.

“SM-43 is the key component in the Lab’s Footprint Reduction Initiative, which is underway,” said Don Toddings of Program Projects, project manager for the initiative. He also noted: “The excessing of SM-43 is an extremely complex matter considering the coordination/execution of moves, maintaining the integrity of safety and security systems, while at the same time organizations are carrying out their mission responsibilities. We are grateful to everyone who is working to make this an institutional success.”

The NSSB is one of the anchor facilities in the revitalization of Technical Area 3. Other recently opened facilities at TA-3 include the Nicholas Metropolis Center for Modeling and Simulation, the Nonproliferation and International Security Center, a new Occupational Medicine facility, new office buildings for Decision Applications (D) Division, Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division, and Security, as well as two multi-level parking structures. Work also has begun west of the Wellness Center on a new Los Alamos Site Office.