The new Life Sciences Building (LSB) will provide modern research and instructional space for the Department of Biology (Biology) so that it can 1) recruit more faculty to meet undergraduate student demand and retain a world-class faculty whose innovative research is the engine of scientific discovery, 2) provide open, flexible, modular, high-density labs ideally suited to the collaborative, interdisciplinary research that is not met by the current Biology buildings, and 3) educate and train the current generation of undergraduates in state-of-the-art research methods working side by side with faculty, postdocs, and graduate students. The new LSB and greenhouse offers Biology and its faculty the opportunity to take its truly integrated approach to biology and its highly collaborative culture to a new level.
The College of Arts and Sciences Life Sciences Building (LSB) project is a five story above grade building plus a mechanical penthouse with two stories below grade. The site encompasses the existing greenhouses and landscaped area located on the east side of Kincaid Hall. The existing greenhouse and associated buildings will be demolished and an approximately 167,700 gross square foot LSB will replace the existing greenhouse site with a 20,000 gross square foot greenhouse positioned south and east of the LSB. Both the LSB and Greenhouse are positioned on the site to optimize with the building program and minimize the impact to significant deodora cedars along Stevens Way and trees in the woodland grove to the east.
The first floor will have an active open entry to the building at grade with Stevens Way and include four research/teaching laboratories. The greenhouse and loading dock are at grade with the Burke Gilman Trail designated as the Basement 1 level. The upper four floors are modular in design consisting of 10 research labs per floor with procedural program on the north side, laboratories in the center and offices along the south bay. The Basement 1 and Basement 2 levels house growth chambers and research facilities. The greenhouse program is integrated into the LSB and consists of research, teaching and collections.