People Vs Buildings
NASA budget skips Marshall complex, Huntsville Times
“NASA did not seek money for the second building of a new three-building complex that will consolidate research and office space located at sites across Marshall. The first building, located at Martin and Rideout roads, is almost complete and should be ready for use later this year. “Last year NASA made a commitment to build this facility,” said [Rep. Bud] Cramer, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the NASA funding subcommittee. “Marshall’s engineers need this building and they deserve this building.”
Editor’s note: C’mon, Bud. Think big picture: I wonder how many EXISTING JOBS can be saved with the money that would otherwise be spent on this NEW BUILDING? The bricks and mortar can wait. Its not as if people did not – and do not – already have a place to sit and work at MSFC.
A note from [email protected] “Keith, It’s not just an engineering complex that is being pushed for at Marshall it’s a redesign of the entire place. There’s a plan to replace the 4200 office complex at MSFC with a “modern” set of buildings and rework the northern half of Marshall’s green space so it feels more like a college campus.
The complaint is that the Von Braun era buildings are too old (well at least three of them are 40 years old but one is only about 13 years old) and cost a lot to heat and cool. I’ve heard that the three main 4200 buildings aren’t even half way through their intended service life.
The master plan to replace them, and it’ll be $100 plus million for a new office complex, calls for construction to begin in 10 years. That means the delegation will start pushing for the money in the next two-to-five years … about the time NASA will need real money to finish up the ISS, do whatever with the shuttle and start testing the CEV.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to put in a more efficient heating and cooling system in buildings that were designed to last 100 years. Didn’t NASA — many people at Marshall — work on efficient heating and cooling systems oh in a little program called Apollo and also in the mid-1970s when there was nothing for engineers to do?
Don’t get me wrong, in my opinion, there needs to be some improvements out at Marshall. I go to asbestos packed labs and offices that date to the 1940s and 1950s all the time. It’s like walking back in time and being in a 1950s sci-fi movie. I keep thinking somebody’s going to contact Elzar 7 on an vacuum-tube powered oscilloscope. There was one building that didn’t have proper water pressure and for the longest time somebody had tapped a fire hydrant for water use in a lab.
These are the buildings that the new engineering complex is slated to replace, but when I ask if the old buildings are set for demolition I can’t get a straight answer. I don’t know about NASA, but I’ve been exposed to Air Force and Army construction projects for more than 15 years and it’s been my experience that unless a building is scheduled to be destroyed it will be used until the end of time. Many times, in the Air Force and the Army other uses are found for the new buildings and the old ones get a new facade and roof slapped on them to make them look good for visiting VIPs.
The new Marshall “engineering” buildings are heavy on office/cubicle space and light on lab space. The Army’s building new office complexes left and right out on Redstone (three “modern” multi-building complexes completed with two under construction and a third in planning) and I think there is a little envy on the NASA side.
I’ve been to many NASA centers and all the buildings have that “space age” Apollo-era design quality to them. JPL and JSC have that “government” research institute feel to them. When I went to Goddard a couple of years ago, I was amazed when I was shown they run the master telephone/video switch for NASA using museum quality 1960s telecom equipment, and I feel like I’m in an episode of “I Dream of Jeanie” every time I go to the Cape.
I guess Marshall wants to be on the cutting edge of rockets and buildings.”
