 |
Dear Friends of the BEVATRON
We are encouraged by the many concerned citizens who have recognized
the importance of this world famous structure and the need to
preserve the Bevatron for future generations.
On December 4, 2006, an appeal was formally filed by the
Berkeley Friends of the Bevatron pursuant to 36 Code
of the Federal Regulations (CFR), Chapter1, Section 60.12....
to the National Parks Department. requesting a formal review
of the Bevatron Building 51/51A's and its eligibility for placement
on the National Register of Historic Places and because of the
Department of Energy’s failure to respond within the required
60 day time period, i.e. DOE’s inaction, refusal to nominate.
Appeal to Mr. Paul Lusignan,
Historian dated December 4, 2006, National Register of Historic
Places, National Park Service regarding the Bevatron. From
Berkeley Friends of the Bevatron (324 KB PDF)
|
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Bevatron, the
largest high-energy accelerator in the world, when it opened
in 1954 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then called
the UC Radiation Laboratory), was declared eligible on December
5, 1995, for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
On that same date the California State Office of Historic Preservation
listed the Bevatron on the California
Inventory of Historic Places.
The historic importance of this cold-war era architecturally
significant structure, the Bevatron,
renders the idea of its demolition tragic. The Bevatron
meets all (3) three criteria for listing eligibility on the
National Register of Historic Places.
Criterion A. By its “significant contribution
to broad patterns of our history”, the Bevatron
was among the world’s leading particle accelerators during
the 1950s and 1960s and was considered the most productive accelerator
of its time. It helped establish American leadership in scientific
research with significant contributions in the fields of particle
and nuclear physics. Four Nobel Prizes were awarded for this
research, largely conducted at the Bevatron.
Criterion B. The Bevatron
is associated with many significant persons who worked at the
Bevatron during the productive
period of their lives. Some spent their entire careers there.
Notably, Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain won the Nobel Prize
in 1959 for their discovery of the anti-protron in an experiment
at the Bevatron. Luis Alvarez won
the Nobel Prize in 1968 for his development of the bubble chamber
particle detector and for his role in finding 18 particle resonances
with the LBL bubble chamber used in conjunction with the Bevatron.
Criterion C. The Bevatron
“embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type”
of building. That is, it is a distinguished example of a rare
international building type, the accelerator building. The Bevatron
possesses the distinguishing characteristics of the type that
“can be expressed in terms such as form, proportion, structure,
plan, style or materials”. The design is a reflection
of the research process in form, materials, structural systems
and plan. The Bevatron illustrates
patterns associated with all accelerator buildings, the individuality
of the particular situation and the evolution of the processes
it was designed to accommodate.
Further, the Bevatron meets Critierion
C in “ representing the work of a master”, i.e.
the architectural firm of Masten and Hurd. At that time they
specialized in large-scale institutional projects, which in
addition to the Bevatron, included
San Francisco’s Hasting College of Law and Warren Hall
on the UC Berkeley campus.
The citations above are from the Dobkin/Corbett Historic Architectural
Evaluation Report prepared in1994 for the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory.
|
|
