Duke Trustees Give Final OK To New Science Building, Law School Addition
A third building project will add visitor locker rooms and other amenities at Koskinen Stadium
Friday, February 27, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. -- The Duke University Board of Trustees on Friday gave the go-ahead to construct a new $115 million facility that will bring together several Arts & Science disciplines under one roof to address major scientific challenges.
The board also approved two other projects: one to renovate and add on to the Duke Law School, another that will add visitor locker rooms and other amenities at Koskinen Stadium.
The science facility, expected to be completed in 2006, will provide new integrated space for Duke's departments of chemistry and biology, renovated space in the existing Biological Sciences building and additional space for the departments of biological anthropology and anatomy, mathematics and physics. The project calls for 280,000 gross square feet of new teaching and research space as well as six new research greenhouses to replace outdated facilities.
In December, the board of trustees agreed to name the new facility the French Science Center in honor of Duke trustee and alumna Melinda French Gates and her family. In May 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it would give Duke $30 million to support the new science facility. Melinda French Gates, a former Microsoft executive, earned two bachelor's degrees at Duke, one in computer science and the other in economics, and an MBA at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Her husband, Bill, is the founder and chairman of Microsoft.
Duke Provost Peter Lange, the university's senior academic officer, said the building will house faculty from several departments and feature state-of-the-art research and teaching laboratories appropriate for conducting 21st-century research and for training students in emerging fields such as genomics, biological chemistry, materials science, nanoscience, physical biology and bioinformatics. It will be located behind the existing Biological Sciences and Math-Physics buildings, off Science Drive.
"It will promote the kinds of interaction across scientific fields that are central to our strategic plan, 'Building on Excellence,'" Lange said. "Its proximity to other facilities should encourage collaborative teaching and research programs and greater interaction between and among faculty and students."
The law school addition will provide 28,000 gross square feet of space for faculty and staff offices, new interdisciplinary centers and student clinics, interview and small meeting rooms and additional student lockers. There also will be renovations to classrooms and student and public spaces; the replacement of outdated mechanical equipment; the creation of a new garden space between the existing building and Science Drive; and an enclosure of the existing courtyard.
The addition. which is expected to cost less than $20 million, will occur on the west side of the existing Law School building.
The Koskinen Stadium project calls for two small buildings to be constructed near the existing west bleachers. One building will contain public restrooms. The other will be used for concessions and to provide locker rooms for referees. Some of the space can be transformed into lockers and showers for visiting teams.
Koskinen Stadium is the home field for the Blue Devil soccer and lacrosse teams. The project is expected to cost less than $2.5 million.