CELS Spring Feature News Article
Spring, 2007
Construction Begins on the Center for Biotechnology and Life
Sciences at URI
By: Rudi Hempe, CELS News Editor and Reporter
---------------------------------------------------------With about 140,000 square feet of space devoted to research and education, the
long-awaited URI Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences has emerged from
its detailed planning stage and has started to become a physical reality.
Amid enthusiastic applause from an audience of close to 300 and lots of upbeat
speechmaking, ground was broken March 27 for the building that was proclaimed
to be the first step in a plan to create a “science quadrangle” on the north side of
the campus.
Spring breezes wafted through a huge tent pitched on a the remains of a pair of
paved tennis courts —the very spot where the building will stand—as several
speakers including Governor Donald Carcieri hailed the occasion as a new
partnership between the state and the biotechnology industry.
Actually the height of the L-shaped building will depend on where you view it.
Anyone approaching it from the east will see a four-story building and from the
west it will appear to be five stories high.
A major part of the ceremony was the presentation of a $1-million donation from
Amgen, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, to help the center reach its
fund-raising goal. The $60 million building is being funded through a $50 million
bond referendum approved by Rhode Island voters in 2004 and $10 million in
corporate and private funding.
The Amgen donation was presented by Kimball Hall, vice president and general
manager of Amgen’s Rhode Island operations.
The groundbreaking drew numerous dignitaries from various state and university
levels who in different ways described the new building not only as a
technologically modern asset for URI but also as an important chapter in the
economic growth of the state which has the biotechnology industry high on its
priority list.
“I’m very grateful to see this partnership happen,” said URI President Robert L.
Carothers said. The center “will provide our students with the learning
environment that will allow them to become leaders in growing and emerging
disciplines, and it will create an environment in which out faculty can conduct
research that will lead to scientific advances to serve America,” said Carothers.
Dr. Jeff Seemann, dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences,
and master of ceremonies for the event, introduced Governor Carcieri as the
state’s “biggest cheerleader” for the investment in biotechnology.
The governor said he and others are convinced that biotechnology “was an area
we need to invest in” and that the new building was the first step of the plan.
The new center will be a major research tool and also a valuable attraction to
recruit more students and scientists, he said. “I’m absolutely convinced we are
going to be a winner,” added Carcieri.
Also on the dais was Robert A. Weygand, URI vice president for administration,
who described the future with the science quadrangle (the biotechnology center,
the already approved pharmacy building and the proposed chemistry and nursing
buildings) on the south side of Flagg Road and the proposed privatized research
park that is envisioned on the north side of the road where URI has 330 acres of
undeveloped land.
CELS also invited two students to take part in the ceremony—Jocelyne Dolce, a
graduate student, who predicted the center will become a favorite home for future
students and Justin Kandler, an undergraduate, who will be graduated before the
building is completed in two years. Nonetheless, he said to a burst of laughter,
students will be thrilled on entering the building two years hence and be able to
“touch Pyrex that no one has touched before.”
In the two-plus years since Rhode Island voters passed the bond issue, the plans
for the five-story building have been modified to keep within the budget as
construction prices rose. A concerted effort was made to make the structure as
“green” as possible, explained Dr. Richard C. Rhodes III, associate dean of
CELS, who was recognized at the ceremony as college’s point-person on the
planning and construction of the new center.
The new building will have many unique features. For example the height of the
L-shaped building will depend on where you view it. Anyone approaching it from
the east will see a four-story building and from the west it will appear to be five
stories high. That’s because the center will be built on a hill.
The center will be flanked on the west by the Social Sciences Research Center
and on the south by Chafee Hall. On the north side is Flagg Road and on the
east side will be a “Life and Health Sciences Quadrangle” that someday will be
shared with new pharmacy and chemistry buildings. (Once the new center is
built, the underground Biological Sciences Building to the immediate east of the
new center will be removed.)
Two Wings
The building will have two wings. The north wing, which will parallel Flagg Road,
will house research facilities including biosafety laboratories on the plaza level
and 16 laboratory “suites” plus faculty offices spread among the upper four floors.
Also included in the building will be conference rooms, storage facilities, a growth
room, a genomics lab and spaces for housing special equipment that support the
laboratories.
The south wing will house educational facilities including 14 large teaching
laboratories spread over two floors. On the plaza level will be a 100-seat
classroom that will resemble a mini-auditorium. Another large auditorium with a
300-person capacity will occupy space on both the plaza and first floor levels.
On the first floor of the teaching wing, the College’s Student Affairs Office will
anchor the southwest corner of the building, providing all students with a location
to do “one-stop shopping.” The Student Affairs Suite will house the College’s
Coastal Fellows Program, an icon for student experiential learning.
The top floor of the south wing will house CELS administration offices, a board
room, a conference room and student/faculty gathering areas.
A major feature of this top level will be a green roof which will serve as a biofilter
and heat sink. Below, a courtyard on the west side of the building will have a rain
garden.
“We look at the green roof and the rain garden as two additional outdoor
laboratories,” said Rhodes.
Other “green” aspects
Prominent features of this LEED-certified building will include an energy-efficient
heating and cooling system, a green roof, a stormwater treatment feature, use of
local building materials, user of environmentally friendly materials.
The green roof and the rain garden are not the only things “green” about the
building, he continued.
Materials from the site development will be recycled. Materials to be used in the
construction will not only be as sustainable as possible, they will be purchased
locally as much as possible to minimize shipping costs. Air handling systems will
be active and passive. The research wing will have air handling gear quite
different from that of the teaching wing because of the large number of research
laboratories. The west side of the building will be designed to absorb heat during
the cold weather months. Coolers and other mechanical devices will have high
efficiency ratings similar to the Energy Star designation that is applied to efficient
home appliances.
Rhodes said every attempt will be made to secure LEED (Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design) silver certification. “This will be really remarkable
because this is essentially a laboratory building,” said Rhodes.
Each wing has about 70,000 square feet of floor space, noted Rhodes. To put
that into perspective, the below-ground Biological Sciences Building has 65,000
square feet and Independence Hall has about 70,000 square feet.
Who will move in?
Of course planning and building the center is one major issue but equally
challenging will be determining who will move into the building, said Rhodes.
Right now CELS departments occupy four main campus buildings of substantial
size. The four are Morrill, Woodward, Ranger and Biological Sciences. (The
college also occupies spaces at East Farm, Peckham Farm and the Bay
Campus.) The next step will be to convene administrators, faculty and staff
members to discuss the occupancy of the new center.
The center should be a new model for educational/research buildings on the
campus, said Rhodes, and the lessons learned will probably help speed up the
process of building the next academic structure—the pharmacy building that was
approved by voters in the last election.
“This building incorporates architectural elements of some of the buildings
around the Quad and some of the newest buildings on campus,” said Rhodes.
Where the two wings meet, he noted there will be an impressive open area, an
atrium and a staircase that will symbolize the double helix of DNA.
“I think visitors will be in awe when they walk in and see this confluence of
research and teaching,” he said.