The area between Huestis Hall and Deschutes Hall across the street from Carson Hall used to be a quiet, grassy lawn. Although construction equipment now dominates the taped-off landscape, the area will return to its original state thanks to some subsurface strategy.
The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) began preliminary construction of its 28,000-square-foot underground research facility last week.
The facility, which will be known as the Integrated Sciences building, will be completely underground, said Chris Doe, biology professor and one of the building’s planners.
“It’s not going to really disrupt the landscaping,” he said. “It’s going to be a grass lawn with some sky lights looking down into the building. It should look pretty cool.”
The building has been in the works for more than a year, and official groundbreaking of the facility is expected to commence this summer, although construction crews are already performing some on-site tests.
“If we can do excavation before it starts raining in the fall, it’s preferable,” said Jim Hutchison, director of the University’s Material Science Institute and a member of ONAMI’s leadership team. “We’re going to be careful about planning it and making sure to get it right.”
Hutchison said the building will contain “collaboration space” that will allow scientists from different areas to interact and share ideas.
This would include scientists from the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and ONAMI industry representatives such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard.
Even though the University’s ONAMI program focuses on nano-science, the instruments will represent a large variety of scientific interests.
“This building certainly serves ONAMI, but it also serves the greater campus area,” Hutchison said.
Doe said the building will bring together people working in multi-disciplinary science in addition to its instruments.
“There’ll be biologists, physicists, chemists, geologists and probably others that I’m not even aware of,” he said.
But he’ll have to wait as the current construction is not for the actual facility. Crews are conducting a series of tests to determine several key factors for when actual building begins.
“What you’re seeing out there is them digging test holes,” Hutchison said. “This is all a prelude to the building construction.”
These tests serve three purposes, he said. First, it allows them to see how vibrations of the bedrock under the lawn would affect the instrumentation that will be housed in the building.
Second, the tests will show exactly where the bedrock is. Hutchison said this knowledge would help them approximate some of the building’s costs. Estimates have so far proved accurate.
Finally, the tests illuminate how construction will affect science experiments being held in neighboring halls. If problems arise, the construction team will adapt their schedule to minimize impact on surrounding buildings.
The building was to be located in the Riverfront Research Park on the north side of Franklin Boulevard, but vibrations caused by passing trains would have affected some of the laboratories sensitive instruments.
Fred Tepfer, planning associate of the University planning office, said it became clear that the current site and underground design sitting on bedrock would help ensure a low-vibration environment.
“Even when you run a loaded dump truck up and down 13th Avenue, the bedrock doesn’t move,” he said.
The entrance to the facility is planned to be a ground-level staircase between Huestis Hall and Streisinger Hall leading down to the facility.
The project is on schedule, Tepfer said, but building has been slow because of the building’s specific needs.
“By choosing this site, with all the technical challenges, for a very affordable amount of money we get world-class nanoscience characteristics,” he said.
ONAMI goes underground
Daily Emerald
May 14, 2006
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