It's Moving Time

Researchers in tuxedos and evening gowns moving to the bio rhythms from a string quartet and dance band. Special hors d'oeuvres created just for munching on lab tours. Plaques and public thank-yous to the people who made it possible. That's how the Division of Biological Sciences celebrated the "unofficial" opening of the $31.8 million Life Sciences Addition to Briggs Hall.

Plant biologist Steven Theg (right) and graduate student Sarah Teter were among the first to occupy the Life Sciences Addition.

Some 350 faculty and staff members, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students from the division and their guests attended the soiree on January 11. Some of the Physical Plant staff members who cleaned around the clock to transform the construction site into a "glorious building" also attended as special guests, says Dean Mark McNamee.

Groups began occupying the addition in mid-January and will continue to do so through April 15. The 118,000 square feet of new teaching and research laboratories will house some 300 people from 30 research groups in the Sections of Plant Biology; Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior; Microbiology; and Molecular and Cellular Biology. The dean's office will occupy a suite on the courtyard.

The building has been a long time coming. "We began focusing on more facilities for biological sciences in the mid '80s when the campus Biological Sciences Council was formed under Dean Robert Grey's leadership," McNamee says.

By 1990 the campus had an official plan to consolidate and upgrade biological research facilities with an addition to Briggs Hall.

"But it's a long process to open a new building," McNamee says.

Construction started in August 1994. The three-story addition was funded mostly by 1992 state bonds, with some money coming from campus sources. A $3 million fund-raising campaign is under way to pay for equipment for the high-technology core facilities.

Having spent years with researchers spread out in Robbins, Storer, Hutchison, and Briggs Halls, the division put a premium on getting the maximum benefit from the new space.

"The building was designed to bring together biologists with similar research interests," the dean says. "Thirty percent of the building is shared space with microscopes, centrifuges, cell culture facilities, and neurophysiology facilities."

Left: A courtyard was created when the addition was attached to Briggs Hall.

Space vacated by the division will house other division researchers and members of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The labs and offices will be allocated with the benefits of collaboration in mind, McNamee says.

Rich Nuccitelli, professor of molecular and cellular biology and chair of the building advisory committee, and Clayton Halliday, project management director for Architects and Engineers, are credited with organizing, problem-solving, and keeping the building project on track to meet its schedule, despite rain, mud, and other challenges.

Photos this page: Neil Michel/Axiom