Penn State Intercom......January 23, 2003
More photos
IST building on track for completion
By Charles DuBois
School of Information
Sciences
and Technology 
The new Information Sciences and Technology Building, already a landmark on the University Park campus, is expected to be completed as scheduled this November, according to the executive overseeing the project.
Anne B. Pernell of the Turner Construction Co. said workers are forging ahead through the winter months, with their next major goal finishing the outer skin of the three-story, 800-foot-long structure this spring.
"The opening of the Information Sciences and Technology Building will mark a leading step forward for teaching and learning at Penn State," said James B. Thomas, dean of the School of Information Sciences and Technology. "What is more, we believe the building will become a national, if not international, focus for thinking in the IT field, a place where critical change and development will begin."
"When the IST Building is completed later this year, it will give our students and faculty in computer science and engineering one of the most advanced facilities in the world dedicated to learning and research," said David N. Wormley, dean of the College of Engineering. "It is more than a bridge between central and west campus -- it is a gateway to future breakthroughs and advances in computer science and engineering that we have yet to dream of."
Currently, glass is being installed on the north face of building's third level, Pernell reported, adding that air-handling systems were recently delivered and have been set in place. Nearly all the concrete work is done -- the last of it, construction of terraces in the cybertorium, now is under way.
Masons continue mortaring in the building's 440,000 bricks, concentrating now on the west elevator tower and on the east ramp. Workers also are working on interior block walls.
Pernell said work on the third-floor interior partitions has begun and, with the landscape design completed, bids soon will be sought for the plantings and green areas around the eastern and western footprints of the structure.
In the fall, a major landmark was observed with the placing of the ceremonial "last beam." Painted white, the beam was -- per tradition -- put on display where it could be signed by faculty, staff, students and friends of the School of Information Sciences and Technology and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the units that will occupy the structure. The beam then was hoisted high into the third-floor superstructure, where it became the 3,256th steel member to be bolted into place for this project.
Work on the $58.5 million building officially began with a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 26, 2001. Funding will come from state and University sources, with additional support coming from corporations and individuals. The S-shaped structure will bring together in one place at Penn State the fields of hardware and software development with the management and application of information technology.
Designed by the architectural partnership of Rafael Viñoly Architects/Perfido Weiskopf Architects, the building spans U.S. Route 322 (business) with a 900-foot walkway that bridges the central and western portions of the University Park campus. At the center of the structure will be a two-story atrium open to the sky. Just off the atrium on the bridge level (second floor) will be the 150-seat cybertorium, a cafe and a demonstration laboratory where visitors can see cutting-edge technology applications firsthand. Classrooms and meeting spaces will extend along the eastern and western corridors of this level.
The third floor will be dominated by laboratories and offices for faculty members and graduate students. Administrative office space and classrooms will be on the ground floor.
Charles DuBois can be reached at ccdist@ist.psu.edu.