Richmond Field Station, California

The University of California has operated an engineering field station on a portion of this former chemical industry site on the Bay since 1950, conducting building engineering testing, forestry products research, transportation studies and environmental research at a number of facilities on the site. The fog chamber, for example, is a tapered shed, a few hundred feet long, which was built for the production of aircraft flight simulation films. It is now used for pavement research projects supported by Caltrans. The earthquake simulation laboratory includes a highway engineering building where structures of considerable size can be mounted on a rack and subjected to destructive shaking. High voltage electrical transmission components have been tested for PG&E here. The University uses some of the original buildings from the California Cap Company, which was the former owner of the property. Starting in the 1860's, in addition to explosives manufacturing, the property, including the adjacent lot occupied by the Zeneca Company, has been used as a copper refinery, pesticide plant, and for the production of sulfuric acid. Extensive environmental remediation efforts began in 2002.