PWP prepared a long-range master plan for a new 5,000-acre town that would house a new supercollider. The town program included a research university, housing, hotel and conference center, schools, shopping, recreation, and administrative facilities. The mountainous area contained dense plantings of Cryptomeria japonica that overtook the native forest, which was heavily logged after the war. 

Prior to PWP’s work, many of the surrounding hilltops had been removed and the earth placed within the valley to produce flat developable land. PWP set out to retain as much of the natural environment as possible, reducing grading, preserving the replanting the native forest, maximizing views, and developing circulation and recreation systems that emphasized the beautiful natural conditions. Housing was clustered into a highly visible downtown, with shopping in pedestrian-friendly complexes that were visible from the roads but not lining them. Neighborhoods are connected by an integrated open-space system of small parks and woodlands that have a network of bicycle and pedestrian trails.