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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8605