UCLA’s ongoing construction project, the Life Sciences Replacement Building, is currently on track to meet its due date of spring 2010.
By the summer of 2010, the building will house the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, the Department of Physiological Science and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, according to the Dean of Life Sciences Emil Reisler.
The construction site, at the corner of Manning Drive and Charles E. Young Drive East, is located in the place of UCLA’s first on-campus residence hall, Hershey Hall, named after donor Mira Hershey. In the construction process, the non-historic parts of Hershey Hall were demolished.
Building for the $155 million project was approved by the UC Regents in September 2005. Construction began in June 2007, according to the UCLA Capital Programs Web site.
The 175,000 square-foot building will have two separate five-story wings connected by a basement.
The new building will provide opportunities formerly unfeasible in the old building, including both wet and dry labs, vivarium facilities and a custom plant growth laboratory.
Stephanie Tollenaere, director of project management services, design and construction for Campus Capital Programs, said the building will receive the UC equivalent of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.
The United States Green Building Council developed the LEED certification to provide standards for environmentally sustainable construction.
Tollenaere also assured that the building is on schedule for completion in the spring of 2010 and that the work is consistent.
Any inconsistencies in the project’s progress are “a matter of perception” and sometimes the work being done is not easily visible to passersby, she added.
She said much of the project’s construction involves work done inside the building itself or even off-site fabrication.
Reisler said the replacement building is “essential to the future of life sciences at UCLA.”
He said the building “will be a center for basic biology … to study emergent properties of whole physiological systems, blurring the traditional boundaries in ecology, evolution, cellular function, development and physiology.”
Although UCLA faces a difficult economic time, Reisler still defends the necessity of the project.
“The old life sciences building was constructed in phases over 50 years ago and has never undergone a major renovation or renewal. It is generally obsolete for contemporary teaching and research,” he said.
In contrast, he said the new building “will provide modern research space and facilities to attract and retain the best people dedicated to advancing the understanding and knowledge of life processes.”
Furthermore, Reisler said the project’s academic objective is to provide the life sciences department with the modern facilities necessary for recruiting excellent faculty and students, fostering interdisciplinary research and teaching and achieving leadership in the biosciences.
One of the project’s focuses is making research opportunities a reality for undergraduate students.
“One-on-one teaching with professors and post-docs is an excellent environment for introducing undergraduates to research,” Reisler said.
He added, “Life sciences brings the promise of making transforming contributions to human health and experience in the next decades.”