Penn State Intercom......October 11 , 2001
Ground is broken for
Life Sciences Building
at University Park
By
Michael Bezilla
University
Relations 
University and state officials on Oct. 5 broke ground for a new Life Sciences Building that will house interdisciplinary teaching and research activities related to fields as diverse as plant biology, neuroscience and molecular toxicology.
The new facility comes in response to a growing awareness of the life sciences' importance in solving some of the most fundamental problems of human existence. Years of steady growth in enrollment have resulted in about 5,000 students pursuing a variety of life science majors across several academic colleges. In addition, the Life Sciences Consortium, formed in 1995, now includes about 500 faculty representing seven academic colleges. The consortium aims to encourage research alliances across disciplinary boundaries and develop new approaches to applications of basic science.
"Penn State
needs a state-of-the-art facility where scholars from across the University
can work collaboratively on issues that characterize the life sciences
today," said President Graham B. Spanier. "We have assembled a world-class
team of faculty and students, but now our team must have room to grow
if the University is to continue to be a leading force in the life sciences."
The 152,000-square-foot structure is expected to cost $44 million. It will be located along Shortlidge Road between Thomas Building and Eisenhower Auditorium on the University Park campus. It will feature classrooms that foster hands-on experiences for students, videoconferencing capabilities, a 182-seat auditorium and 38 laboratories organized around four research clusters: animal developmental biology, neuroscience, molecular toxicology and plant biology. University funds will provide $29 million, and the University is aiming to secure the remaining $15 million from private donations.
The building will include a glass-enclosed connection at upper-floor levels with the new chemistry building, also under construction, to facilitate collaborative research activities in the two buildings. The building's architects are Bower Lewis Thrower Architects of Philadelphia and Payette Associates of Boston. Completion is expected by mid-2003.
"This building will be a magnet for programs far flung across the University," said Eva J. Pell, vice president for research, dean of The Graduate School and Steimer professor of agricultural sciences.
"What makes life science research so exciting is the capacity to go from the most fundamental understanding of problems confronted by living systems, and then using that understanding to develop solutions," she noted. "For example, we have faculty studying the molecular biology and physiology behind regulation of water loss from the surface of plant leaves. That understanding will lead to potential genetic modification of plants to make them more resistant to drought, one of the limiting factors to plant productivity worldwide."
Pell said that planning for a new life sciences facility began at the recommendation of a faculty study group in 1994. Under Spanier, a building development plan emerged that included the Eberly College of Science and the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Health and Human Development, and Medicine, with the Colleges of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Engineering and the Liberal Arts as additional components.
Edward R. Hintz, chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Nina Fedoroff, director of the Life Sciences Consortium and Willaman Professor of Life Sciences, also participated in the ground-breaking ceremonies.
Spanier expressed appreciation for private gift commitments that had been received thus far, citing major gifts from Catherine V. Beath, Paul and Mildred Berg, Carl O. Clagett, Dauer Family Foundation, Sylvia A. Hoch, Woodrow E. Hoch, J. Lloyd and Dorothy B. Huck, A.M. "Don" and Marion L. MacKinnon, the late George L. McClelland, and Verne and Betty Willaman.