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[Spartan]

This article provided some new insight into the extend of the new research campus to be built at USC.
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A USC research campus holds the promise of contributing to theMidlands economy across multiple sectors.

Plans call for the campus to stretch from Assembly and College streets west and south to the Congaree River. Construction of the first building at the Arnold School of Public Health should get under way this summer.

The research campus is expected to take 10 to 15 years to build. A significant portion is likely to be devoted to health sciences activities, but the campus will not have a single theme, said Harris Pastides, vice president for research at USC.

USC has identified four research areas around which the campus will be developed, Pastides said. They are:

• Expansion in energy, which includes hydrogen and fuel cells

• Biomedical

• Nanotechnology

• Environmental research.

How development proceeds will be dictated largely by the willingness of commercial partners to locate on the campus, Pastides said.

“That is a huge priority we’ve got. Otherwise, we are just building buildings for the university, and that is not what this is about,” he said.

What the research campus is about is attracting commercial partners who want to work with university researchers to create new businesses.

The campus is being developed for USC by Craig Davis Properties of Raleigh, the firm that created N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus.

USC’s campus will be operated under the aegis of the new USC Research Campus Foundation. The foundation will finalize the contract with Davis on June 21, said Rick Kelly, USC’s chief financial officer.

After that, he said, things will happen quickly. “In the first six months, we expect to see a minimum of two, and possibly three, buildings under construction,” Kelly said.

The first building will be devoted to public health research. Planners also are looking at a commercial-partners building devoted to health sciences that would be built on the same block, which is bounded by Assembly, College, Park and Pendleton streets.

Craig Davis Properties likes that concept and believes the building would be marketable given all of the collaboration going on in health services, Kelly said.

“We just think that will be a dynamic place to have some private partnership growth,” he said.

Both buildings should get a boost from the newly formed S.C. Health Sciences Collaborative, which includes Palmetto Health and USC.

The initiative calls for four of the state’s largest universities and hospital systems to invest $80 million over the next 10 years to increase health sciences research. Each partner intends to contribute $2 million per year — a total of $8 million per year — which is eligible for state matching contributions.

USC and Davis are also planning a science and technology building on the old Hardee’s block bounded by Assembly, Blossom, Main and Wheat streets.

Researchers in the nanotechnology and energy groups are the most likely tenants for that building, Pastides said.

A second building will go up simultaneously on the same block to house researchers who do more desktop computing.

That building will provide another opportunity to recruit companies to move in, he said.

There also will be economic development opportunities for businesses to service the needs of people who will work and perhaps live on the campus.

Small retail businesses, such as coffee shops and restaurants, and residential units are likely to spring up on the campus and nearby.

Once the initial research buildings are under way, planners are considering picking properties three or four blocks away for the next phase to allow for just that kind of in-fill.

Growth is expected to be rapid.

“I’ll be surprised five years from now if we are not somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to 10 new buildings,” Kelly said.

This article is copied directly from The State:
http://www.thestate....ess/8857784.htm
The article left no author.

[The_sandlapper]

There have been quite a few articles about this development. I thought this thread would be a good continuation of continuing articles and ideas.

USC Fuel Cell Research Center to involve 11 corporate partners

By By James T. Hammond
STAFF WRITER

COLUMBIA — Eleven of the major players in the emerging hydrogen fuel cell industry will be partners with the University of South Carolina in the newly designated National Science Foundation's national fuel cell research center at USC.
"These are primary players in this field of research who have come together as partners. It's important to have the early primary players," said James Clark, chairman of the USC Research Foundation.

While it's difficult to know in advance who will be the IBM or Intel of the fuel cell energy revolution, Clark said, it's important to have a diverse set of players.

One partner will look at it from one perspective, another from a different perspective, and "that's when the light bulb comes on," Clark said, "that's when new products and opportunities come about."

One of the NSF center's start-up partners, Tokyo-based Showa Denko Carbon Inc., already makes components for stationery fuel cell power generators used on remote island communities in Japan.

Masatoshi Matsumoto, manager of the company's Ridgeville, S.C. plant, said such units might one day provide back-up power within residential subdivisions or remote communities in the United States.

Such a transition away from fossil fuel power would go a long way toward freeing the nation from its current dependence on foreign-produced oil, officials said.

John Goodman, president of Chaska, Minnesota-based Entegris, another maker of fuel cell components, said one of the top criteria for participation in the NSF center was access to a strong talent pool of Ph.D. candidates. That was one of USC's strong suites, he said.

Goodman said the potential for businesses to gravitate to South Carolina to be near that large and growing talent pool is "fairly good."

"It depends upon the outcomes of the research," he said.

Fuel cell generators, which run off hydrogen, one of the Earth's most common elements, currently power an assortment of stationery systems, such as mobile phone cell towers. One of the partners in the USC consortium, Plug Power Inc. of Latham, New York, makes such a generator.

Goodman cited as an example of what can happen around such a research consortium the semiconductor industry that grew up around Austin, Texas.

"These research centers create a critical mass of research and industry moves toward that critical mass," Goodman said.

Following a major research collaboration between government, academia and industry, Austin because one of the foremost centers the microtechnology and computer industry over the past two decade, spawning such companies as Dell Computer in the process and creating thousands of high-paying jobs.

Other corporate partners in the NSF fuel cell research center are: CD adapco, Melville, N.Y.; BASF AG, parent plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Bulk Molding Compounds Inc., West Chicago, Ill.; Dana Corp., Toledo, Ohio; Eastman Chemical Co., headquarters in Kingsport, Tenn., and with a plant in Columbia; John Deere ePower Technologies, Monroe, N.C.; Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, S.C.; and W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., Elkton, Md.

source

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DuPont Fuel Cells joins USC Fuel Cell Center Team

DuPont Fuel Cells has become the latest member of USC’s National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells (NSF I/UCRC).

USC, a national leader in fuel-cell research, houses the nation's only fuel cell center sponsored by the NSF.



John Van Zee
"Our role is to assist industry in moving toward the commercialization of fuel-cell technology and in training well-qualified engineers and scientists," said John Van Zee, director of the center. "USC has a strong, well-established faculty and research facilities in electrochemical technology, catalysis, and hydrogen storage suitable for fuel-cell development."

Fuel cells may be important not just for vehicles, power tools, or laptop computers but also because of spin-off technologies yet to be developed.


For six years, faculty in USC's department of chemical engineering have conducted more than $6 million in research for the U.S. Department of Energy and industrial partners to improve fuel-cell components and systems. Other center members include CD Adapco Group, BASF AG, Bulk Molding Compounds Inc., DANA Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, Entegris Inc., FINNCHEM USA Inc., General Motors Corporation, John Deere ePower Technologies, Plug Power Inc., Westinghouse Savannah River Company LLC, Scribner Associates Inc., Showa Denko Carbon Sales Inc, and W.L. Gore & Associates Inc.

[waccamatt]

This is an exciting, developing story.

[jfl25]

S.C. is on a role, with the USC research park and Clemsons ICAR research park. I think corporations will look at the state alot closer now and hopefully relocate more buisnesses to the state. Do you think USC and Clemson could possibly become partners in reseach someday.

[Spartan]

jfl25, on Jan 29 2005, 01:30 PM, said:

Do you think USC and Clemson could possibly become partners in reseach someday.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some how I doubt it. But hey, you never know.

[waccamatt]

Spartan, on Jan 29 2005, 01:26 PM, said:

Some how I doubt it. But hey, you never know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doubt it. Too much bad blood between them. Personally I wouldn't care if Clemson vanished into thin air. Go Cocks!

[jfl25]

I know the suggestion was far fetched .I guess it was just wishful thinking.

[The_sandlapper]

Here is one of the original articles that I saw that initially disscussed the possible impact this development would have on the area (ie "Cola is to hydrogen as Houston is to oil").

Hydrogen energy heats up
Fuel cell research expected to power growth at USC and in Columbia area
By C. GRANT JACKSON
Business Editor
Fuel cell research could do for USC and Columbia what semiconductor research did for the University of Texas and Austin over the past two decades.

In the 1980s, Austin and the University of Texas attracted the Microelectronics and Computers Technology Corp. consortium and SEMATECH, the Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology consortium.

The result was explosive growth and the Texas capital's emergence, along with Silicon Valley, as one of the nation's premier locations for high-tech industries. By 1993, more than 20 major firms had located in Austin.

USC and industry officials believe the same thing could happen in Columbia, with Monday's formal announcement that the National Science Foundation has chosen the university as the nation's first Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells.

"The industry consortia that I have seen formed in other states typically creates a critical mass," said John Goodman, chairman of the fuel cell center's industry advisory board.

"Companies that want to benefit from the research, the access to faculty and to the students coming to the university, tend to migrate toward that critical mass," he said.

National Science Foundation funding for the center will total $210,000 over three years. Eleven initial industry partners will add an additional $1.2 million.

Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity. The only emission is water vapor.

A lot of attention has been given recently to automobiles powered by fuel cells. But USC has been involved in fuel cell research for years.

"In fact, USC was involved in fuel cells, before fuel cells were cool." said Harris Pastides, interim vice president for research at USC.

The potential impact of fuel cells has been likened to that of semiconductors.

When SEMATECH was formed in Austin, "That city went from a very nice place to live, a nice city, to really one of the major cores of semiconductor research in the country," Goodman said.

Goodman, whose company, Entegris, is located in Minnesota, was in Columbia on Monday to take part in the announcement. Entegris serves the microelectronics industry. Its customers are companies that make fuel cells.

"I would expect that as the programs here advance, we would see a similar desire by industry to locate near that source of talent and source of intellectual property."

USC president Andrew Sorensen hopes to persuade industries involved in the center to locate in Columbia. He wants them to partner with the university to build facilities for the center on a new university research campus.

Many of those are national or international companies such as BASF, DANA Corp., W.L. Gore Associates, Showa Denko, and CD adapco Group.

Goodman said his experience with the National Science Foundation research center for microelectronics leads him to believe the USC center can be successful.

Intel and IBM, both household names today, are two of the partners in the microelectronics center, Goodman noted.

"The reality is, when you look at fuel cells, we don't yet know who the IBMs and Intels will be. One of the things I would bet on is that companies that come together and do collaborative research like we do at this center are going to be among the leading companies as we move to the hydrogen future," he said.

The center's mission is to help industry advance technology and commercialization of fuel cells by performing research, said John Van Zee, the USC professor named director of the center.

That mission is accomplished by educating students, Van Zee said.

"It is important that we educate these students, not for tomorrow, not in technology, but in the basic science which will allow them to make contributions 30 years from now in this emerging technology."

Edited by The_sandlapper, 29 January 2005 - 09:52 PM.

[DrumCorpsAlum]

There was a rendering in the Gamecock.  I'll see if I can find an archive.

[The_sandlapper]

USC is adding another addition to the research campus. In an attempt to keep the plastics indusrty thriving in SC USC's research campus may be adding another research lab to the mix. Plastics at USC

USC research might protect state’s plastics industry

Center would develop technology that might keep businesses from moving overseas

USC scientists say they are developing the technology to keep soda from going flat, beer from going stale and South Carolina’s plastics industry from going to Asia.

Industry leaders are working with the university to create a center on USC’s new research campus devoted to the new technology.

Edited by The_sandlapper, 07 April 2005 - 12:59 AM.

[The_sandlapper]

Has anyone seen any activity around this site lately? I was wondering how construction was coming along?

[Spartan]

You'd think that living here at USC, I might know something about this, and yet I dont.

I'll go over there tomorrow and see what is going on.

[dobboard]

If you are referring to the "Hardees block" construction has not started.

I have, however, seen numerous people who have heard President Sorenson speak over the Spring say that he has indicated that construction will begin this summer.

Originally Sorensen stated that construction would begin in February...so who knows??

[The_sandlapper]

Does anyone know where some renderings of the completed campus could be found?

[emerging.me]

Okay... I just had to add this in here. I've been saying this building has GOT TO GO for a long time. Good call, Sorensen! Now, if we can just do something about that Holiday Inn we'll be in buisness down there.

USC likely to raze Carolina Plaza

http://www.thestate....al/11566706.htm


The University of South Carolina is considering demolishing the 14-story Carolina Plaza in downtown Columbia.

USC president Andrew Sorensen could make a decision very soon about the Assembly Street landmark that has been empty for six months, a university spokesman said.

“It could be at any time,” Russ McKinney said.

USC owns the whole block where the former hotel sits, and it is where the university will locate the new Arnold School of Public Health. Completion is scheduled for January, McKinney said.

Although the university tentatively had decided to renovate the roughly 150,000-square-foot Carolina Plaza for the Arnold School project and for the university’s research campus, USC is reconsidering that decision because of costs, McKinney said.

There's more at the link...

[emerging.me]

Sandlapper... here are the only images I know to exist...

This is of the "Hardee's corner" area, across from Strom...



And here's a tiny pic of the Health building, but now you can imagine it without the ugly Carolina Plaza to the right.

[krazeeboi]

USC RESEARCH CAMPUS

Councils OK funds for parking garages

Columbia, Richland County will pay $15.5 million of cost of two structures to boost campus, Vista

By JOHN C. DRAKE

Staff Writer


The city of Columbia and Richland County have agreed to pay $15.5 million for two new parking garages and a plaza downtown to serve USC’s research campus.

This is the first time the local governments have pledged a dollar amount to the university’s effort.

The city and the county will split the cost for one garage and a plaza. Revenue from both garages will fund construction of the second garage, according to a City Council resolution approved Wednesday night. County Council agreed to the arrangement in closed session Tuesday.

Details of the financing still need to be worked out, but the total cost of the two garages is about $28 million.

The 5 million-square-foot research campus will include laboratory and office space, mixed-use retail, recreational areas and residential components. Local officials consider it a key engine for future economic development in the Columbia area....

*Click headline for entire article*

[vicupstate]

I'm will be glad to see the Carolina Plaza razed as it is a prime example of crappy '70's architecture.  

I was surprised to see that Cola and Richland County are picking up the tab for the Research campus garages.   They are going to be needed, but that is a lot of money.  Both will probably have to raise property taxes to pay for them.  City residents will get a double whammy.

[Spartan]

Agreed. I say trash it. I would rather see something shorter with better quality built there. You can only do so much with a hotel. Now, if they were going to put dorms in there, then I would change me mind

[krazeeboi]

Exciting news you guys:

USC plans 7-building, $141.2 million project

By C. GRANT JACKSON

Business Editor


Three USC research buildings, two private buildings and two parking garages — costing $141.2 million — are part of a detailed vision of the first phase of USC’s new research campus being unveiled today.

The refined plan includes a new biomedical research block across Lincoln Street from the Colonial Center, with a public plaza dubbed Foundation Square.

“It will be the town square of the whole research campus,” said Harris Pastides, USC vice president for research.

The university also has updated its proposals for a public health research block anchored by the Arnold School of Public Health, as well as the Horizon Center block across Assembly Street from the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center.

USC will unveil all of this at a meeting of the S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board, when the university makes a pitch for state funding.

In all, the first phase calls for:

• Three university-owned buildings at a cost of $76 million

• Two privately financed buildings at $26.2 million

• Two parking garages at $34 million.