Dave Tudor, Facilities Project Manager for Berkeley Lab's new Oakland Scientific Facility, and Howard Walter, NERSC's Future Infrastructure Project Lead, have been responsible for the site search, planning, and coordination of design and construction.

The transition from NERSC-2 to NERSC-3 presented the challenge of a threefold increase in the machine's footprint and a twofold increase in its power requirements. In response to this requirement, Berkeley Lab announced in August 1999 that it had selected a site in downtown Oakland for the Laboratory's new computing center, which will house NERSC's high performance systems as well as other Berkeley Lab scientific and administrative computer systems.

A request for proposals drew eight qualified responses, from which the Oakland site emerged as the favorite. The former bank building is being seismically reinforced and completely redesigned to meet or exceed all current codes and standards, with additional improvements in the electrical supply capability. The new center is scheduled to open by fall of 2000. It will be connected to Berkeley Lab and other national laboratories via a high-speed network connection provided by ESnet.

	Architect's rendering of renovated building.