Earlier this month, construction began on the University’s Lewis Integrative Science Building, located next to the Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories.
Forecasted for completion in fall 2012, the building is intended to provide a platform for cooperation and cross-disciplinary research among the University’s science programs and will feature enhanced facilities for nanotechnological, neurological and human health research projects. Also, the building will be the primary site for the University’s sustainability and solar energy technology research programs.
“The main thing I’m looking forward to in the new building is the updated imaging facilities,” human physiology associate professor Paul van Donkelaar said, “Right now we only have equipment for head scans, but we are hoping to add a magnet that will allow us to do internal imaging of peoples’ entire bodies. The new facilities will provide lots of different opportunities for researchers.”
Design plans for the integrative science building indicate that the structure will contain approximately 100,000 square feet of laboratories, collaborative spaces and offices for approximately 45 faculty members and will also be physically attached to other buildings in the Lokey Science Complex. The construction effort is slated to hit full-steam by the fall, but precautions are being taken to minimize the project’s impact on the rest of campus.
“We also clearly understand the close proximity in which we will be working with occupied buildings and ongoing research,” Denise Stewart, the University’s construction manager for the project, wrote in an e-mail to those who may be affected. “We anticipate various meetings with specific groups in the coming weeks and months, to schedule specific work activities around research and academic events.”
The construction will likely necessitate the redirection of pedestrian pathways in the area and will also affect some of the parking lots by Streisinger Hall and Oregon Hall.
Aside from the state-of-the-art features, the Lewis building is also noteworthy because it is the largest investment the state has ever made in an academic facility at the University. The state has dedicated $30 million in bonds to the integrative science building, a figure that is barely shy of the $31.25 million Oregon State received for its Linus Pauling Science Center that will be opening in the spring.
Fundraising for the remainder of the building’s $65 million projected cost is still ongoing, with grants and private gifts having brought in more than $32.5 million to help see the projected through. The building’s namesakes, University alumni Robert and Beverly Lewis of Newport Beach, Calif., have been long-time supporters of the University’s neuroscience programs. In 2001, the couple, who met at the University in the 1940s and later achieved great success running one of the largest Anheuser-Busch franchises in the country, donated $10 million to the University to establish the Robert and Beverly Lewis Center for Neuroimaging. After the passing of her husband in 2006, Beverly continued their commitment to the University with a $13.67 million gift in 2008, of which $10 million went to funding the integrative science building.
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