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Project: The Robert R. Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory*
Client: Cornell University and the National Science Foundation
Location: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

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Challenge
The National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned a 75,000-square-foot research facility with coexisting laboratories and hazardous industrial facilities to be built on the Cornell University campus. The project involved two substantial challenges: Its centerpiece would be the most powerful accelerator ever located in the heart of a university campus, and the fixed budget was small given the project’s size and complexity.

One of the primary challenges was the “energetic” nature of the accelerator—a 10-billion-volt electron synchrotron that uses a high-frequency electric field and a low-frequency magnetic field to speed up charged particles, allowing scientists to probe deep into subnuclear matter. Because of the radiation this process produces, the synchrotron had to be shielded by a barrier of earth, concrete, or steel. At the same time, the control and counting areas of the laboratory had to be suitable for human occupation and located as close to the experiment hall as possible.

Solution
As design architect, Ian Mackinlay worked closely with Dr. Robert Wilson, then director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Studies at Cornell and the synchrotron’s designer, from the project’s inception. They came up with cost-effective solutions to designing the facility that made innovative use of site features and construction techniques.

At the time, the typical methods of creating such a facility were to build the accelerator in a trench and then cover it with substantial backfill to block radiation, or to build a heavy structure with thick walls that could contain the radiation. Both methods were expensive. Ian and Dr. Wilson devised a more economical approach: They located the synchrotron under Cornell’s main athletic field, where the soil was ideal for tunneling and for supporting the heavy foundation necessary for the experiment hall; employed a used sewer-tunneling machine with a 7.5-foot-diameter bore to dig a tunnel that formed an 800-foot-diameter ring 60 feet below the surface; and constructed the accelerator within the tunnel walls.


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* The design contract for construction of the facility was awarded to William M. Brobeck and Associates, Mechanical Engineers, of Berkeley, California. Associated with Brobeck were Ian Mackinlay Associates, which provided the architectural design; Jacobs Associates, which handled the tunnel design; and Pregnoff and Matheu, which produced the structural design.