Glenn master plan would redevelop Fairview buildings
By Kevin Kelley
Westshore
Published Feb. 7, 2007

A new master plan drafted by Glenn Research Center employees would bring significant changes to the NASA campus, including the redevelopment of its property north of Brookpark Road into a public outreach area. The centerpiece of this section of the campus would be an Aerospace Education Center and a relocated visitor center. New buildings for space contractors would also be built in this location under the draft.

At a news conference Monday, Glenn Director Woodrow Whitlow Jr. said the master plan represents a projected investment of $200 million over 20 years.

The plan must still be approved by NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Whitlow said the plan will be submitted by March.

News of Glenn’s new master plan was published in the January issue of Aerospace Frontiers, the center’s employee newsletter.

The master plan potentially has great importance to the city of Fairview Park. NASA had announced in January 2006 that two buildings in that city on the north side of Brookpark Road — the Developmental Engineering Building and its annex — would be closed.

While the two buildings (also known as Buildings 500 and 501) occupy only five acres of Glenn’s campus, they house Fairview Park’s largest group of employees. The potential loss of income tax from the buildings’ more than 500 employees would put a serious drain on Fairview Park’s finances, city officials said. Three full-time and five part-time Fairview Park employees were laid off by the city in April 2006 in part because of the announced closings of the buildings.

But because Glenn was able to stem a threatening tide of buyouts and layoffs, the center plans to continue using the buildings longer than originally anticipated.

“We didn’t shrink the way we thought we were going to shrink,” Whitlow said.

Whitlow told West Life that the buildings will be occupied through 2008 before being demolished sometime between 2009 and 2011.

“We have in our plans some development plans for the north campus,” Whitlow said, referring to Glenn’s property north of Brookpark Road.

Whitlow declined to provide any further details about the master plan before it’s approved by NASA headquarters. If approved, the master plan would be implemented over a 20-year period.

So how confident is Whitlow that the master plan will be realized as opposed to ending up just sitting on an office shelf?

“Since I’m responsible for sending it forward, and since I’ve approved it through every stage, I’m pretty confident we’re going to take it forward now,” Whitlow said at a news conference Monday. “What happens when it gets to Washington, that’s another story. But we’ve involved headquarters as well.”

Whitlow said the draft has been in the works for several months.

“One of the reasons for wanting to have that master plan was that whenever we would go forward to advocate for new facilities or new buildings or new capabilities, institutional capabilities at the Glenn Research Center, whoever was making the decision would see that it is part of some overall strategy and it’s not something that was ad hoc,” Whitlow said.

“I’m good with it,” Whitlow said of the draft. “I’m ready to take it forward to start to share it with our various stakeholders.”

Joseph Morris, Glenn’s chief architect, said in Aerospace Frontiers that the master plan draft is necessary as the center takes a more active role in NASA’s space exploration program.

“Our team has developed an exciting plan that is a vital management tool to direct our planning efforts and ensure that we have the facilities we’ll need for present and future missions,” Morris said in the article.

Morris called the property on which the Fairview Park buildings stand “a very visible and accessible area to the public.”

“So we can utilize this site for public outreach while leveraging the value of the land for our space exploration partners,” Morris said in the article.

According to the article, the master plan also calls for creating a campus center to function as a “downtown” Glenn. Along with new administration buildings, an auditorium, conference center and cafeteria would also be built. The plan also calls for upgrading test facilities at Glenn’s Plum Brook Station outside Sandusky.