Madison Shumway
Staff Writer
With a laboratory renovation planned for this summer and another $12 million project requested, the Gale Life Sciences Complex could look much different within the next few years.
While smaller upgrades have been completed since the building’s construction in 1970, the complex has not yet undergone a major renovation, said College of Science and Engineering Interim Dean Lyle Castle.
“That means that that building, which I think was a good building in its time, has been used for quite a number of years,” he said. “We need to upgrade … from having a facility that fits what was needed in that era to having a facility that fits our needs now.”
The proposed remodel, which would take place over several years, would replace aging infrastructure with new electrical, water, sewer and central gas systems. It would also update the building’s aesthetics and technology, outfitting classrooms with new projectors and whiteboards.
To complete the project, the university requested $10 million from the Department of Public Works to be supplemented by $2 million of its own funds. If approved, the funding would most likely come in installments over several years.
The university should know in the spring whether it will receive the state funds, said Jason Adams, director of engineering, design and construction.
“The infrastructure systems have just aged beyond their useful life,” Adams said. “To keep the building, keep operating, we need to start looking at doing some upgrades.”
In addition to bringing infrastructure up-to-date, the remodel would add new finishes, flooring, ceilings, cabinets, furnishings and potentially a new core lab space. New technology would allow the university to convert classrooms to distance learning spaces in the future.
The major project would take place after the completion of the 2015 remodel of the anatomy and physiology cadaver lab, which cost $1.1 million, and the renovations of four more labs to be completed this summer. That update involves a biochemistry and a neuroscience lab, as well as two anatomy and physiology labs. Castle said the upgrades would draw students to the university and attract future research opportunities.
“I think it’s a great recruiting tool for students to come and visit the facility, to meet with students that are working at the facility, have a chance to talk to them about working in that environment,” Castle, who is also a chemistry professor, said. “We can leverage the investment we make in this facility to make ourselves more competitive for external research grants, and that of course benefits faculty and students, because faculty then are able to direct grad students and undergrads, but the students themselves get to do a lot of the actual research, so they get that kind of experience.”
If funding is approved, the remodel will allow up-to-date learning and research in the facility, he added.
“We’ve always had a really strong faculty in the biological sciences,” Castle said, “We need to make sure we have a facility that helps them to be able to be very successful, which of course ends up benefiting our most important group, which is our students.”
