X-Message-Number: 8605
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:21:07 -0400
From: "Stephen W. Bridge" <>
Subject: Building for cryonics

To CryoNet
>From Steve Bridge
Chairman of the Board
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
 
September 17, 1997
 
Re: Messages #8602-8604 on criteria for a cryonics facility.
 
I assume that Eric Safyan is an architecture student.  I have dealt with a
couple of these over the past four years.  It will be more common, and
perhaps Hugh Hixon and I should put together an FAQ for this.  Time, time,
time...  At least I will give this reply a subject which can be
searchable.
 
As set up by Alcor, a cryonics facility has five or six main components.
Several of these could be pursued in separate buildings.
 
1.  Administrative offices.
2.  Operating room and other rooms for performing the suspension surgery
and cool-down to LN2
3.  Patient care area, where the patients are maintained in LN2
4.  Research area
5.  Building maintenance, possibly including housing for an emergency
vehicle
 
Other areas which might be important:
 
-- A library
-- Computer room
-- Housing for at least one full-time guard or staff member
-- Kitchen, bathrooms, laundry facility
-- Housing for research animals
-- General storage of records, equipment, etc.
 
Some of these areas do have unique requirements which are not part of your
average office.  The operating room, for instance, is modeled after
hospital operating rooms.  Sterility is an issue both for this and for
research areas.  Ideally, that means they should not be part of traffic
flow to other areas of the building.
 
Security is an issue for the building as a whole, and especially for the
part of the building which houses the frozen patients.  It is not
inconceivable that some imbalanced person would want to damage such a
facility, so it needs to be as secure and as fireproof as possible.
 
The appearance of the building is very important, although the writer's
questions about:
 
> Symbolism of life and death translated into built form
> cryonics and architecture
> meaning/implications of a cryonic architectural form
 
show that the writer is a student.  I agree with Joe Strout that
practicality of protecting the patients comes first; however, I also
suspect that an architecture student has some "philosophical" requirements
he must satisfy to make his mark.
 
What is most important about appearance is that the building inspire
confidence in the organization -- without looking like it is being run by
a con(fidence) man.  I think that building a "Crystal Cathedral" for
cryonics would be counter-productive for most potential members.
 
One of the best aspects about Alcor's building in Scottsdale, AZ is that
it fits in with the other buildings in the Air Park, which is an extremely
attractive and clean area.  It may seem odd to newer CryoNet readers, but
just getting cryonics to be seen as a "respectable" business has been
quite an uphill battle.  In Scottsdale, Alcor largely won that battle with
positive media coverage, careful discussions with state and local
government officials, including a cordial relationship with Scottsdale's
mayor, a strong presence in the Chamber of Commerce and other local
organizations, and an attractive, low-key, "respectable" building that
these people could visit.
 
It's not perfect, but it's a big step up from Alcor's earlier Riverside
CA, which was a step up from the small facility in Fullerton.
 
Other comments from Message #8602
From:  (Leo Safyan) (actually Eric Safyan)
 
>-  issues of site selection;  seismic factors?
 
In choosing Scottsdale AZ for Alcor's move in 1994, seismic factors were
one of several "disaster" scenarios we looked at.  We also examined the
chances of damage from tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and blizzards.
Blizzards are not a problem for patient care itself; but if you cannot get
your team in and out of town for days at a time during the winter, you
severely limit your ability to respond to suspension emergencies.
 
Central Arizona was good on all factors (one of several sites that might
have worked).
 
Also, if research and suspension surgery is to be done in the same
building as storage, you need to be around a city with universities, good
medical facilities, and libraries.  Unless you have unlimited money, you
will need the knowledge and assistance of other technical people.
 
Nitrogen availability is also a concern.  A mine in a Colorado mountain
might be physically secure secure; but the costs of moving tanks and
nitrogen in there might overcome the perceived safety factors.
 
>-  airport accessibility?
 
As Tom Matthews noted, the time factor is more important to getting your
team out of town quickly than the other way around.  Alcor is about 25
minutes (average drive time, depending on traffic) from Sky Harbour
Airport, the main commercial airport in the Phoenix area.  This isn't too
bad for most circumstances and we have had excellent cooperation from the
commercial airlines.
 
Alcor is right beside the Scottsdale Airport, which has a runway large
enough to handle any air ambulances or fairly large corporate jets.  We
have never used it so far, since Alcor doesn't have its own jet, and we
haven't suspended anyone with enough funding to pay for an air ambulance
service.
 
>-  issues of political intervention/ public opinion
 
This is not of great importance in the building itself, but it could
easily affect the location of the building.  Riverside's city officials
did not want us; Scottsdale's did.
 
I'll send a copy of this directly to Eric, since he probably doesn't get
CryoNet and I am not set up from home right now to post on sci.cryonics.
Feel free to cross post this to sci.cryonics.  I forget if we can still
cross post directly from here now by putting sci.cryonics in the subject
line.
 
Steve Bridge

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