Scientific advancement planted its footprint on Eastern Michigan University's campus last December with the opening of its new Science Complex. Constructed as a five-story addition to the Mark Jefferson building, the complex is part of a $195 million capital plan – the largest in EMU's history.
The next component of the $90 million project, a top-to-bottom renovation of the Mark Jefferson building, commenced last month and is expected to be complete by the summer of 2012, according to EMU Associate Provost Wade Tornquist.
The LEED Silver-certified addition was built over a former loading dock and parking area to minimize its environmental impact. The terraced complex has a green roof that uses rainwater for surface vegetation. And energy-efficient new electrical and HVAC systems in the 80,000-square-foot addition and planned for the renovated 240,000-square-foot Mark Jefferson building balance out the 30% increase in space, neutralizing the effect on utilities costs, Tornquist says.
The physics and astronomy, geography and geology, chemistry, biology, and psychology departments have a presence in the new addition, whose most notable feature is an open atrium with views up to a spherical planetarium cantilevered between the third and fifth floors. The complex also contains study areas, a computer teaching lab, modernized classrooms and 63 instructional and research labs that can be shared by faculty and students in all branches of the sciences.
"One of the goals for the project was to try to break down some of the disciplinary borders," Tornquist explains. "We've moved more towards interdisciplinary laboratory design rather than designing laboratories for specific departments."
A groundswell of interest also rises on the first floor with its collection of rocks native to Michigan, some of which are three billion years old. Geologists handpicked the rocks and consulted with the architects on placement, Tornquist says.
The two groups were initially at odds, with the geologists wanting the rocks sorted by age and the architects prizing aesthetics: "In the end the geologists still are telling me that they have them arranged by age, so they're good with it. I'm sure the architect will tell you they're arranged by massing and color, so he's happy too. Real interdisciplinary, right?" he jokes.
Tornquist sees the project as a key recruiting tool for training more Michigan-based scientists.
In past years tour groups of potential students "always bypassed the science building, and I always wondered, 'What does that do for us in terms of recruiting science students?'" he poses. "Now it's on the campus tour so I'm hopeful that they're getting a different message. They'll be thinking that science and EMU go together."
Source: Wade Tornquist, associate provost at EMU
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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