Construction of Hamilton's new, $56-million science center is on schedule despite record-breaking winter weather, said Douglas A. Weldon, Stone Professor of Psychology and science curriculum and facilities coordinator. Students who enroll at Hamilton this fall as members of the class of 2007 will have full use of the new facility when they begin their concentrations at the start of their junior year in 2005. The newest portion of the center will be open one year earlier, in the fall of 2004.
"The building is going well even though we've had an extremely cold winter," said Bill Huggins, assistant director of construction. "We've installed temporary heat in order to pour concrete and keep the temperature-sensitive work on schedule."
The year-around, tightly timed construction schedule will create from the ground up a new wing (or one side of the H-shaped floor plan) and renovate the existing structure. Once completed, the new center will nearly double the amount of space devoted to science education at Hamilton.
The first phase of the center will house the "wet" labs that require high intensity air handling for chemistry and biology. These departments, as well as the physics department and neuroscience program, will move in during the summer of 2004. At that time the psychology and geology departments will move, for a year, into renovated spaces in the Saunders Hall of Chemistry, while additional construction and renovation continues on the rest of the science complex.
During 2004-05, the 1965 wing will be demolished and rebuilt, and the original 1925 Science Building will be renovated and a new facade will be added. By the fall of 2005, the entire center will be completed.
Faculty input has been instrumental in all stages of the planning and construction. The architects have sought to balance both teaching and research needs, especially since all faculty members will have faculty-student research labs that will be used by students as they complete their senior projects and other research opportunities.
Highlights of the new center include a wireless computing environment, incorporation of the latest safety advances for air handling, and more efficient use of space. In addition to a new 125 seat state-of-the-art auditorium, a number of different seminar rooms will be especially useful for sophomore seminar classes. "We envision these rooms being used by departments from across campus, not just the sciences," Weldon said.
Another feature that is sure to make the science complex a campus centerpiece is the atrium. Huggins describes it as an architectural "show-stopper," and Weldon is enthusiastic about its educational and environmental value. "We'll be able to teach our students what green technology can do by the features incorporated into the atrium," Weldon said. The new glass facade, which will be constructed on the front side of the existing Science Building, will be partially heated using "geothermal loops." Since the ground temperature is considerably warmer than the air in winter, a heat pump will be used to transfer heat from the soil to the atrium during colder months and vice versa in the summer.
Weldon says, "The architects have worked with experts on environmentally friendly design and this technology will make the atrium a large, pleasant, informal meeting area."
Photos by Jonathan Vaughan.
