Ask Georgetown College Dean Jane McAuliffe how her year has been and her response is full of enthusiasm.
"I'm really excited that we are on track to open a new science building," she said, "Nothing has given my morale such a boost as to feel that this is really going to happen."
With conceptual designs for the new science facility complete, the university's board of directors in May approved funding for the next phase of design development. Once that phase is complete, and pending all required permits and approvals, building construction could begin as soon as spring 2008, said Karen Frank, vice president for facilities and student housing. Projected opening is 2010 to 2011.
The two new facilities, along with a sloping greenspace, will fill the plot of land formerly known as Lot T, just south of the Leavey Center.
Science facility plans call for an L-shaped building that will house classrooms, faculty offices, teaching laboratories, research laboratories, support space and lounge areas for the biology, chemistry and physics departments.
"This particular building," McAuliffe said, "will allow us to really do 21st century science, and by that I mean science that is flexible. Science that is able to follow the path of discovery even as it continues to accelerate."
Conceptual drawings of the facility's footprint and exterior show a red brick building with clean lines and large glass windows that complement the contemporary lines of the adjacent Bunn Intercultural Center. Meanwhile, the gabled roof and brick façade fit with the traditional look of the Leavey Center and new business building.
The science facility will be connected to the Leavey Center through an entryway at Sellinger Lounge, providing easier access to the student center from the southwest end of campus, Frank said.
Architects also designed the facility to be environmentally friendly, with "green" features that should enable the building to reach an accreditation known as "LEED Silver."
"We want to be socially responsible," Frank said. "We're making a really concerted effort in this building to do as much as we possibly can within reason to make such a contribution to the environment."
Tim Barbari, associate provost for research and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said the "green" features may also be used as teaching tools. Classes could study native plants, insects and other creatures in the greenspace, for example, and meters could be posted to help passersby understand energy consumption, he said.
Enhancing the Sciences
The new building is one piece of the university's commitment to enriching Main Campus science, which includes the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, mathematics and psychology. University officials and faculty say the focus is on three areas: improving the facilities, increasing the size of the faculty and launching new programs.
They knew existing facilities are too small to accommodate even the existing people and programs. Plus, they knew they needed to hire additional faculty members in order to best serve the needs of the university community -- particularly if science classes ever become part of the core curriculum for undergraduates in the McDonough School of Business and Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Most research institutions in Georgetown's peer group have faculties that are about one-third science, one-third humanities and one-third social sciences. Georgetown's science faculty is disproportionately small as a result of growth that took place in the humanities and social sciences over the past decade, said Marjory Blumenthal, associate provost for academic affairs.
"If we don't have a bigger science enterprise," she said, "we can't do what most people in the outside world would assume any top-ranked school could do."
More and better space is key, officials said. But they aren't just sitting around waiting for the new building to open, McAuliffe explained. Math and computer science moved into newly renovated space in St. Mary's Hall this academic year and some of the organic chemistry labs will begin work in the Basic Science Building on the Medical Center campus this fall.
The new building is being designed for biologists, chemists and physicists -- most of whom are now housed in the aging Reiss Science Building.
Opened in 1962, Reiss has served as the base for intensive research by award-winning faculty and students. Built before researchers had the benefit of using hand-held calculators and personal computers, the building now houses high-powered lasers and other resource-intensive equipment.
After four decades of use, the basic infrastructure -- such as water-cooling capacity, climate control and electrical systems -- is deteriorated, outdated and often unable to handle the needs of current-day research, faculty members and officials say.
"If you're spending time making sure the research hoods are working, that's time that being taken away from research," said Tim Warren, associate professor of chemistry. "In my mind, one of the greatest benefits of moving into a new building … is that the facility will be at the beginning of its lifespan, not at the end."
Faculty members with labs and offices in Reiss will move into the new science center when it opens. Once Reiss is cleared, the "reinvention" can begin, Barbari said.
Past conversations among university leaders had included talk of tearing down Reiss. But the salvage value of the building ended up being $20 million, not the roughly $7 million as previously thought. So, it made more sense to plan for extensive rehabilitations and renovations to turn Reiss into a facility of the same caliber as the new building, Barbari said. Plans call for a bridge to connect the two facilities -- creating a science complex in the heart of campus.
Reiss reinvention ideas are in the early stages, as much depends on the design of the new building.
"In order to have growth," Blumenthal said, "we need both the reinvented Reiss and the new building. Otherwise we won't have enough space."
Interior Design
Faculty members are excited because their new laboratories will be not only in better condition, but also conducive to interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
The new building is designed with two wings. The wing parallel to the Leavey Center houses a row of teaching classrooms and informal meeting space along a bank of large windows that faces the greenspace quadrangle. Native plants will grow on the rooftop patio, similar to the esplanade on the roof of the Leavey Center.
The other wing, which runs along Tondorf Road, has five floors, some of which are underground at one end because the land is sloped. The lower levels are being designed to house laboratories for disciplines such as physics that require conditions free of light, vibrations and other environmental changes.
Other floors house offices, classrooms, storage areas, open lab space and more informal meeting space.
Lab space is configured as a long open area lined with windows on one side and research support space on the other side. Some of the lab area, which likely will be used for chemistry experiments, may be enclosed when needed. But the idea is to keep most of the lab area open so that physicists, chemists and biologists -- many of whom work on the same set of problems -- may work close to one another.
"We can cluster people together based on their research goals, regardless of what department they are in," said Ronda Rolfes, associate professor of biology. "Our goal is to promote interdisciplinary interactions." She said the connections between chemistry and biology, for example, are most easily seen in biochemistry.
Rolfes is a member of the planning committee, along with Warren and Ed Van Keuren, associate professor and co-director of graduate studies in the physics department.
Van Keuren said that "a lot of new and interesting research that is coming out these days is really at the interface of the disciplines. … That's where a lot of the breakthroughs are coming, so anything you can build in structurally to enhance it just helps the process."
This is becoming increasingly important as granting agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health give more of their research grants to large-scale, interdisciplinary projects, Barbari said.
And if several researchers are collaborating on a large project, they can all work in the same space, rather than in several small labs on different floors or buildings.
This is a challenge with existing facilities, he explained. If three faculty members, for example, collaborate on a major project with $1 million in outside funding, they would need to bring on post-doctoral researchers, undergraduate and graduate students and others to help conduct the research.
"Where would be put them?" Barbari said. "We really don't have a place. So our faculty are somewhat being hindered by the fact that they couldn't go after that kind of big grant because we'd have nowhere to house the center or the project.
"The advantage of the new science center with a more open feel to the large laboratories is to have the ability to flex,” he said.
Faculty Involvement
Throughout the design process of the building, faculty members from physics, chemistry and biology, along with administrators from the provost's office, deans' offices and facilities department, have sat down together to figure out the best way to enhance the sciences at Georgetown.
"We put forward things that are important for us," Warren said. "We identified some synergies."
Rolfes said the team took a lot of time to review the current needs of each department, as well as what might be possible areas for growth and change in the future.
"The past two years have been really reflective. … We have a strong sense of who we are," she said. "With that in mind, we can look at these facilities and how we will use the new spaces in a really programmed way."
They also explored new pedagogies and teaching methods, considering how they might influence the building design. Teaching labs, for example, are smaller sized than existing labs, providing an intimate environment for students to ask questions and get help from faculty members.
As faculty members see their ideas incorporated in the building design, they are looking forward to the effects the facility will soon have on their work.
"It's going to impact our research and teaching immensely," Warren said. "It's going to provide first-rate facilities for us to do what our faculty does best -- that's to combine teaching and research at the undergraduate and graduate levels."
Learn More: Going Green
While the university has a track record of environmentally friendly initiatives, such as reclaiming storm water for irrigation and using clean-energy sources, this is the first facility that will incorporate so many conservation efforts in one building.
This can be challenging in science buildings, officials say, because a significant amount of energy is needed to operate lab equipment and maintain conditions such as temperature, and humidity needed for research.
Conservation features should enable the building to earn "LEED Silver" certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, which developed the Low Energy Efficient Design (LEED) rating system.
Conceptual design plans include the following "green" features:
- Use of environmentally friendly materials: Benchmarks set for use of materials that are recycled, local in origin or from rapidly renewable sources, such as bamboo.
- Water reclamation system: Rain water from the roof, air handler condenser water and process water used by research equipment will flow into a 20,000-gallon tank nestled underneath the greenspace. The water will be treated and reused for irrigation and in the utility plant's cooling tower.
- Enthalpy (heat) wheels: These wheels recapture the heat and cooling of the building system's exhaust air so that newly introduced fresh air does not require as much energy to either heat or cool.
- Chilled beams and alternate induction technologies: These beams use induction to provide air heating and cooling, which experts say is much more energy efficient than typical fan coil systems.
- High performance-low energy chemical fume hoods: These technologically advanced hoods operate with 40 percent less energy than conventional hoods.
- Efficient design of the building space: This building is designed in a way that maximizes the use for each square foot. Architects were able to reduce the building footprint without eliminating basic requirements for use.
- Installation of pervious concrete walkways: Storm water is able to penetrate this type of concrete, which reduces the potential for pooling and icing. The water "naturally" flows into the ground, reducing the need for water management systems.
- Smart landscaping: Native vegetation should result in fewer environmental impacts. Thoughtful placement of trees, shrubs and earth is designed to protect the building from sun, wind and noise.
- Energy conservation policy: A new policy will limit the temperature range for occupied spaces.
- Reduced natural resource consumption: Water will be conserved through the use of waterless urinals and the water reclamation system noted above.