When the Board of Trustees approved additions to Porter Hall in April, it wasn't planning on the urgent need for research space to accommodate the Environmental and Plant Biology department.
The project includes the demolition of Anderson Lab and the construction of a road connecting Richland Avenue and Baker University Center. The plan left 5,100 gross square feet of space in Porter that could be used once funding became available.
As construction began and the university located additional funds, the time for completing the fourth floor was advantageous, said Richard Shultz, director of Implementation. -
we would have had to go back and get another state building permit Shultz said. We would have had to bid it again and then there's a cost for advertising.
Two months before the construction was approved, the trustees refused to vote on the project because of budget concerns. Though the board was still reluctant to move forward on the construction, they unanimously approved it at the following meeting.
With the vice president of research and the executive vice president and provost offices providing the additional $168,154 for expanding the research space of the Environmental and Plant Biology department, the Board of Trustees approved the renovation of the space at a resource committee meeting last week.
The fourth-floor addition will be home to specialized plant birth rooms, an analytical chemistry lab, a herbarium, a research microscopy facility and office space for graduate students and faculty, said Gar Rothwell, chair of the Environmental and Plant Biology department.
The department's efforts to increase national prominence resulted in a tripling of their nine-year average of external funding to a high of $1.1 million in 2007. Additional grants currently being submitted will be viewed more favorably with the basic infrastructure of the fourth floor in place, according to an interoffice communication sent to the trustees.
Plant Biology's research infrastructure was so badly in need of improvement G? that the university decided to dedicate an extra floor of the addition to the Plant Biology department
Rothwell said.
The entire project, including the road, will be completed in mid-December next year, Shultz said. The addition to Porter Hall should be ready by the 2008 school year while the rest of the fall will be spent taking down Anderson and constructing the road, Shultz said.
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Construction equipment stands behind Porter Hall last night. The equipment will be used to construct an addition to the building that will house research space for the Environmental and Plant Biology department.
