Dear members of the Oregon State University community,
I am writing to confirm my decision that Oregon State University will locate the university’s new Marine Studies Building at the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center in Newport.
This announcement follows more than a year’s work and scientific evaluation by an oversight committee that I created in October 2016 to monitor the design, engineering and eventual construction of this new building and related student housing in Newport.
When I announced my initial decision on Aug. 4, 2016 to locate the Marine Studies Building at HMSC – and to locate student housing on higher ground in Newport – I pledged that before construction commences, the university would ensure that:
- The buildings will be designed, engineered and constructed to survive a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.
- The Marine Studies Building will be constructed to survive an associated tsunami resulting from a catastrophic natural event, such as a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.
- The Marine Studies Building will be repairable following an L-level tsunami.
- The Marine Studies Building will serve as a safe and accessible vertical evacuation site in the event of an XXL tsunami.
- The HMSC campus will be served by a preferred horizontal evacuation site.
- All work associated with building construction and operation would be carried out transparently and with full information to stakeholders.
- And that the project will be built on time and on budget.
My decision to proceed with construction of the Marine Studies Building is based upon the work of the oversight committee, which has concluded that these design, engineering, construction and safety commitments can be made.
The oversight committee conducted four meetings, in addition to a public forum on the Corvallis campus in May 2017. An independent, technical peer review panel made of internationally acclaimed engineers advised the committee. Oversight participants included liaisons from the Associated Student Body of Oregon State University, the colleges of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Engineering, Liberal Arts, and HMSC. Scott Ashford, dean of Oregon State’s College of Engineering, chaired the committee, which reported to Provost and Executive Vice President Ed Feser. Here is a link to the oversight committee’s work.
Moving forward, I recognize that there is more work to do.
Oregon State will engage with the city of Newport, Lincoln County and community partners to further plan and expand natural disaster preparations, including for horizontal evacuation systems to nearby Safe Haven Hill. We will work to reschedule the construction of the Marine Studies Building, which has been somewhat delayed by this important oversight process. We will manage the construction budget along with additional fundraising for this project and meet the goals of the Marine Studies Initiative, even at a time when inflation is driving construction costs locally and nationally ever higher. In addition, we will conduct oversight review of planning for the construction of student housing.
I thank the oversight committee and its liaisons, the technical peer review committee and the many stakeholders on all sides of this issue for their contributions to this evaluation.
I am confident that while some aspects of the Marine Studies Building planning have been controversial in the past, the results of this oversight, analysis and significant public engagement will result in a safer and more resilient building and overall HMSC campus.
By constructing the Marine Studies Building at HMSC with a vertical evacuation component, Oregon State University will provide for greater safety for the Yaquina Bay community and all of those who visit, work and study at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. At the same time, the building will serve as an Oregon, national and global model for safety and resilience within coastal communities.
Sincerely,
Edward J. Ray
President