Menlo Park will get $1.5 million building

Construction is scheduled to start in Menlo Park within 45 days on the first unit of a $1.5 million development destined to become the western states’ headquarters for field geologists of the United States Geological Survey.

In addition to the cost of building, government outfitting of the facility with laboratory equipment will run into more thousands of dollars.

Word that lease negotiations for the project have been successfully concluded and that construction is imminent came today in a joint announcement from Thomas H. Osborne, chief of the leasing branch of the U.S. General Services Administration in San Francisco and Ray T. Lindsay, partner in the Claude T. Lindsay Co., developers of Linfield Oaks.

The development, which eventually will have four two-story buildings containing 140,000 square feet of floor space, will be located on four and a third acres of property in Linfield Oaks off Homewood Place cul-de-sac. The property is bordered on the northwest by federal lands in the Stanford Village area.

The initial building, to be constructed by the Lindsay firm at an estimated cost of $500,000 is expected to be ready for occupancy by Oct. 1, Osborne said. It will contain 40,000 square feet. A second building of the same size is scheduled to be constructed two years hence, he explained.

The remaining two buildings envisioned for future expansion of geologic activities here, would each contain 30,000 square feet of floor space. The entire project would cost "in excess of $1.5 million when fully realized." Lindsay said.

Osborne reports that the first unit would be occupied by a staff ranging in number from an estimated 175 to 225. Approximately 75 percent of the staff will be highly trained personnel including many of the nation’s top scientists in the geologic field, he pointed out.

He explained that the close proximity of Stanford University has been counted as an important factor in drawing high ranking geologists to the new establishment. The location will provide the research staff ready access to Stanford’s geologic library facilities and an interchange of information with the Stanford School of Mineral Sciences, it was noted.

Palo Alto Times
January 22, 1953

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