DEMOLISHING HISTORY:

The City of Santa Monica is now demolishing the two original RAND Corporation buildings. Generally thought to be America’s first think tank, RAND occupied the site from 1951 until last year when it moved into its new HQ, which is just south of these buildings. Several years ago, RAND sold most of its original acreage to the City for $53 million. Many of America’s most significant post-World War II foreign and domestic policies and strategems were developed in these buildings, and it was a RAND researcher Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.