Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

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Baltimore-81 LIPPINCOTT: It looked like a library to me, when I was there. BALTIMORE: Yes, it was much more a library, and it had some meeting rooms and stuff in the first floor. But then it goes way down deep. That’s where the telescope is. You have to bring the light down and then reflect it up and focus it. There was a piece about the telescope on campus that Hale built in Robinson [Henry M. Robinson Laboratory of Astrophysics], and they’re now going to use that as a water-storage place to air-condition Robinson. It’s worth reading; it’s in the last, or second to last, E&S [“Subterranean Homesick Clues,” by Michael Rogers and Heidi Aspaturian, Caltech News, Volume 43, No. 2—ed.]. LIPPINCOTT: I’ll look at it. OK, so now you’re launched into the presidency; and there are a few things to talk about there. One thing Caltech did was buy St. Luke’s Medical Center [2003]. Was that your idea BALTIMORE: It was. St. Luke’s was being closed by Tenet [Healthcare Corporation], and I was very concerned for the long-term health of Caltech and for the ability of Caltech to do new and interesting things. But it needed space. LIPPINCOTT: For biology BALTIMORE: No, not particularly for biology—not for anything in particular. It’s just that the amount of space on campus is limited. It’s not zero; there’s still a fair amount of space on the northern part of the campus for expansion, but that’ll run out. We’re landlocked here; it’s very hard to extend our profile. And so I spent time, over the whole time I was president, thinking about that problem. There was a time when I was talking with the Polytechnic School about perhaps trading them out of their space there and taking that over. LIPPINCOTT: Off Arden Road Or off Wilson BALTIMORE: Well, the whole Polytechnic School. They could have moved over to the Ambassador property, which was available, and which the Maranatha School ultimately took. So there was a lot of discussion about that at the board level of Poly and our board level, but it
Baltimore-82 never came to pass for a variety of reasons, including the difficulty of actually doing much building on that campus, because of zoning issues, and where it was, and whatever. And I’m not sure we could have ever put together the resources to help them do that. And then St. Luke’s came up, and it seemed like a tremendous opportunity. So we contacted, with the help of Wally [Walter L.] Weisman who was the board vice chair, the president of Tenet and asked him whether he’d consider such a thing. Well, he was actually very positive about the idea. LIPPINCOTT: They’d already had the idea of selling it BALTIMORE: Yes, they had announced that they were leaving and closing it, so there was no question that it was up for sale. The city didn’t want to see the property become a real estate development, which it could have—and I suppose may yet. So I arranged to purchase it for $12 million, which was a steal at the time. And they were being very good about it; it was a steal. It wasn’t clear who else was bidding for it. So we bought it, and we did put one program up there—the 30-meter telescope design program—and we outfitted the old cloister there. Because there was also a little chapel—a lovely room—and there was a religious group that lived there, in little rooms. LIPPINCOTT: Like an abbey, or a monastery BALTIMORE: Yes, it was like a monastery, but it was women, I think. And that was separate from the hospital and lent itself best to adaptation to the needs of the 30-meter telescope project. So the project moved up, and it’s still there, as far as I know; I don’t actually know what’s going on up there now. Then we looked at what it would take to recondition the hospital building for various sorts of projects that various people had in mind, and it turned out to be just hugely expensive. LIPPINCOTT: To make labs there BALTIMORE: To make anything there, because of the need to deal with the whole structure. You couldn’t just take a piece of it and do something; you had to really work on the whole structure, because it needed electrical work, plumbing, and all that sort of stuff. So the up-front
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DAVID BALTIMORE (b. 1938) INTERVIEW
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CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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Baltimore-iii 51-55 1975 Nobel Priz
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Baltimore-2 BALTIMORE: The family w
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Baltimore-4 LIPPINCOTT: Oh! That wa
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Baltimore-6 BALTIMORE: Suburban, si
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Baltimore-8 I remember a big thing
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Baltimore-10 college at that point;
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Baltimore-12 BALTIMORE: Yes. That e
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Baltimore-14 BALTIMORE: No, I don
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Baltimore-16 BALTIMORE: I did not w
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Baltimore-18 BALTIMORE: Yes, that
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Baltimore-20 LIPPINCOTT: How big a
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Baltimore-22 BALTIMORE: No, this wa
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Baltimore-24 BALTIMORE: That’s ri
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Baltimore-26 BALTIMORE: I spent all
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Baltimore-28 BALTIMORE: No, I think
Page 35 and 36: Baltimore-30 BALTIMORE: Polio and i
Page 37 and 38: Baltimore-32 LIPPINCOTT: So your Ph
Page 39 and 40: Baltimore-34 BALTIMORE: No, I’m n
Page 41 and 42: Baltimore-36 BALTIMORE: Oh, yes, I
Page 43 and 44: Baltimore-38 BALTIMORE: It was year
Page 45 and 46: Baltimore-40 LIPPINCOTT: No, it was
Page 47 and 48: Baltimore-42 DAVID BALTIMORE SESSIO
Page 49 and 50: Baltimore-44 BALTIMORE: The Cookery
Page 51 and 52: Baltimore-46 appears in Howard’s
Page 53 and 54: Baltimore-48 BALTIMORE: Yes, it’s
Page 55 and 56: Baltimore-50 The experiment I descr
Page 57 and 58: Baltimore-52 room and they didn’t
Page 59 and 60: Baltimore-54 LIPPINCOTT: OK. Renato
Page 61 and 62: Baltimore-56 all the pictures that
Page 63 and 64: Baltimore-58 and the profits from t
Page 65 and 66: Baltimore-60 contemporary. So that
Page 67 and 68: Baltimore-62 BALTIMORE: And that’
Page 69 and 70: Baltimore-64 BALTIMORE: No, it was
Page 71 and 72: Baltimore-66 understand that. Becau
Page 73 and 74: Baltimore-68 BALTIMORE: I still had
Page 75 and 76: Baltimore-70 LIPPINCOTT: Were they
Page 77 and 78: Baltimore-72 BALTIMORE: This was—
Page 79 and 80: Baltimore-74 LIPPINCOTT: You don’
Page 81 and 82: Baltimore-76 a biology school, in s
Page 83 and 84: Baltimore-78 LIPPINCOTT: OK. So on
Page 85: Baltimore-80 Judy’s book calls it
Page 89 and 90: Baltimore-84 BALTIMORE: I don’t b
Page 91 and 92: Baltimore-86 BALTIMORE: Well, he wa
Page 93 and 94: Baltimore-88 BALTIMORE: We intervie
Page 95 and 96: Baltimore-90 about this, but when I
Page 97 and 98: Baltimore-92 to announce it.” Gor
Page 99 and 100: Baltimore-94 BALTIMORE: I don’t r
Page 101 and 102: Baltimore-96 BALTIMORE: Yes. LIPPIN
Page 103 and 104: Baltimore-98 LIPPINCOTT: You mean h
Page 105 and 106: Baltimore-100 LIPPINCOTT: OK. In th
Page 107 and 108: Baltimore-102 BALTIMORE: I had no i
Page 109 and 110: Baltimore-104 BALTIMORE: So I was g
Page 111: Baltimore-106 BALTIMORE: Well, not
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Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

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