The Tar Heel Thursday, August 19, 193523
few:
.-"Number of Tensnts
1959 to 1965
1965
approx. 1 new arrival
per year
IBM announcement
16
1970 -
1980 - 32
1985 - 39
and that s impressive when you
consider that no more than three
major research facilities are built in
the U.S. in any one year!
DURHAr.i
Kl mm. m
Inivercity
1965 L-1,000
1970 - 6,068 "
198 1 - 17,500 - Payroll est.
$400 million plus 1
i
X '"w .... I
:rpnlvercily
All Attn mZl
University
of North
Carolina at
Chapel Kill
Where tire Jobs Are
Wake County - approx. 60
Durham - approx. 30
and the population of the town of
Cary has increased from an estimated
3,000 in 1960 to 22,010 in 1981 while
Raleigh's population approximately
doubled in the first 22 years of the
Park's existence.
Research
Triangle
Park
University
By Jim GreenhlH
Editor
The term 'Research Triangle was first
coined Romeo H. Guest, president of a
Greensboro building company, in the .
summer of 1953 to apply to the triangle of
the eastern North Carolina Piedmont whose
corners are formed by Duke University
(Durham), the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State
University (Raleigh). The Research Triangle
metropolitan area has only the 76th largest
population in the country but the highest
concentration of Ph.D.s to total population
of any comparable area in the United States
(there were 3000 in 1978 of whom 600 were
working in the park itself).
The Research Triangle Park is 6,200 acres
in the center of the Triangle set aside for
research and development facilities for
industry and government It is not only the
largest planned research park in the United
States, it is the largest in the world. The
Markham family, who once farmed the land
that is now the center of the park, sold that
land for $100 an acre. Now the same land
sells for over $15,000 an acre.
Organizations locating in the park have
to have a minimum eight-acre site (no
maximum) and be involved in research,
development, or scientifically oriented
production. Anything more than light
manufacturing is prohibited. They cannot
occupy more than 15 of their total tract
The Idea
The idea for the Park is attributed to Dr.
Howard W. Odom, founder of the Institute
for Research in Social Science here at UNC
CH (who saw it as an academic center),
Romeo Guest (who saw it as a focus for new
research and development), and 1953-"61
Governor Luther H. Hodges (who took the
wider view that it would enhance North
Carolina's whole economy and provide jobs
for the graduates it produced).
Guest was an MIT graduate and an
admirer of the 'Route 128 area outside
Boston who hoped that something similar
could be achieved in North Carolina. The
Research Triangle, along with areas in
California and Texas, now attracts individ
uals and companies away from that very area
(Data General Inc. is one of them) because
taxes there have meant that it has lost its
competitive advantage (William Haynes
specifically cites North Carolina's taxes as
an incentive for moving here in the accom
panying story on Dynamit Nobel Grace
Silicon).;
On January 9, 1959 Governor Hodges,
announced that an initial $1.5 million had
been raised to fund the Park and Institute.
Investment in buildings constructed or in
hand in the Park in 1978 exceeded $170
million. By 1981 the Institute had earned over
$300 million in contract research revenues.
It was not a new idea. In 1951 Stanford
Industrial Park was established in Palo Alto
and is regarded as the first
The Foundation and the Institue
The Research Triangle Foundation runs
the Park. Its chief aim is to promote the
region, which (see above) it seems to be doing
well.
The Research Triangle Institute, located
in the Park, is a nonprofit organization
founded and owned by the three universities.
In addition to the statistics above, in 1978
alone it was expected to have $30 million
in contracts, following a tripling of volume
in the previous five years and a doubling in
the most recent two.
Growth and the IBM Effect
Growth was slow until the IBM Corpo
ration's 1965 decision to purchase 400 acres
of the Park and establish a $15 million
research, development, and manufacturing
complex - a complex that is now one of the
corporation's major facilities worldwide. This
was the catalyst to growth that many regard
as possibly the most significant single
development in the Park's history. Before that
restructuring took place to rescue the whole ,
idea and the Foundation took out a $1.3
million mortgage to stay in business. Perhaps
this was why the original idea to prohibit
manufacturing altogether was relaxed for
IBM. - V" " - - -r
Today IBM is still by far the Park's largest
single employer, although its importance is
declining relative to the growth of the
environmental sciences.
The Attraction
The Research Triangle Park has all the
facilities it needs to attract government and
industry (see map). Interstate 40 runs through
the Park and it is linked to several North
Carolina highways and US 15-501 and 70.
Raleigh-Durham Airport is 10 minutes
from the Park by car. The airport, where
a second major runway is under construction
and. plans for a second major terminal are
in progress, is served by seven major air lines,
six commuter air lines, and important freight
carriers. Raleigh-Durham is no more than
two hours flying time from half the country's
population.
. The North Carolina Department of
Commerce has a Business Assistance Div
ision which aims to assist industry, business,
communities, and individuals in creating and
maintaining job opportunities and the North
Carolina Science and Technology Research
Center, located within Research Triangle
Park and providing information for industry,
business, and individuals for North Carolina.
The latter has a contract with NASA under
which it provides information for the whole
of the South-east excluding Florida.
Under an arrangement calkd Extended
Area Dialing, telephone calls between the
Park and the three university cities (Chapel
Hill, Durham, and Raleigh) are charged at
local rates.
The Park and the Environment
Mere care that the activities of the tenants
in the Park do not adversely effect the
environment would be enough, but it has.
rapidly become a center for environmental
research itself. Examples are given below.
Some Tenants of the Park
Chemicals: The Monsanto company
developed Astroturf there.
Pharmacy: Britain's Burroughs Wellcome
moved its North American headquarters to
the park from Tuckahoe, New York in 1970,
creating v900 jobs in the park and 1,200 in
Greenville (about 100 miles east) where it
moved all its manufacturing operations.
Environment: The Johnson Administra
tion decided to establish the Environmental
Research Center there in 1965 and it is now
the largest facility of the federal government's
Environmental Protection Agency,
concentrating on creating a scientific base for
air pollution control.
We axe grateful to ths administration of Uesesicb TriasS
Park for their cooperation in providing background isfor
nsatioa and the photograph for this, editorial feature. Add
itional background material, uKludiag sosae of the quotations,
was. derived from The Economist Newspcper, the New York
Times, Science raagaziae, and North C&otsta magazine.
Catherine Cowan, Tar Heel Managing Editor, assisted with
the map.
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