---

'Groundshaking' for Science II building to be held May 6

---

The groundbreaking for the $18.5-million Science II building will be held May 6 north of the current Science Building on San Ramon Avenue between Woodrow and Maple Avenues.

Construction is slated to begin shortly after that, reports campus Director of Facilities Planning Gary Wilson, and be completed by January 2005. The bid process is currently under way.

A campus committee chaired by John Houseman, director of development for the College of Science and Mathematics, is planning the event which will feature a "groundshaking" conducted by the Department Earth and Environmental Sciences using its seismograph equipment.

The seismic event will turn the first dirt in place of traditional shovels, said Dr. John Suen, department chair. The committee will announce detailed plans later this month.

The new facility, a three-story building that will be located immediately east of the Downing Planetarium, will add advanced classrooms and labs to the campus as well as new faculty offices. Other work will

include the renovation of 12,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the Pyschology/Human Services Building.

The new 73,000-square-foot building will include lecture halls and instructional labs for earth and environmental sciences and psychology classes.

In addition, Science II will house departmental offices for Psychology and Criminology plus the dean's complex for the College of Science and Mathematics. In addition, the new building provides space for more than 100 faculty offices.

Science II is slated to include graduate research and special instructional areas for the physics department to support the research needs of the Downing Planetarium.

The completion of the building allows the demolition of the remaining San Ramon Buildings, temporary structures that were added to the campus in the early 1970s.

Back to University Journal, 4/03 Issue