When the doors to a made-over Mulvane Hall open within the next few years, it will feature more space for academic endeavors and student interaction, Baker University President Pat Long said.
As an exterior design was completed this week by Steve Troester, the architect for the project with Peckham Guyton Albers & Vietz, Inc., Long said she’s feeling good about the proposed addition.
“I think it’s going great. I believe we have a design that our students will like,” she said. “I’d love to see that building coming out of the ground in 2009 or before. If we’re very aggressive with our fundraising, we could see it coming out of the ground by next year.”
Long said $2 million has been raised so far to devote to the science building. Once Baker raises half the total cost, which has been estimated between $18 million and $20 million, ground can be broken for the new project.
Long said she is optimistic about the fundraising endeavors in the near future. She hopes to draw from the history of Mulvane to help move the project forward.
“We haven’t done much fundraising in the last six months because we’ve been waiting to get a design,” she said. “As we’re starting to talk to potential donors and key constituents in the area, what we’re hearing is that they really like the idea to preserve Mulvane.”
Professor of Biology Darcy Russell said she is glad the history of the building will be maintained.
“Mulvane has been the science building here for so long, it would be sad not to have it,” she said. “There were just so many conversations about what Mulvane would be, but now the point is moot.”
Russell was first consulted about the construction of a new science facility about six years ago by former University President Dan Lambert and then-academic dean Stuart Dorsey.
“They asked me if this project was possible,” she said. “Early on, basically what my job was was to go to places that had done projects like this.”
Russell, who had experience planning for a new science facility at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., took colleagues to a conference at Drury University in Springfield, Mo., to discuss the necessities for current and future curricula.
“Then, we designed a building that was our ultimate dream building,” she said.
However, she said funding limitations made an addition to Mulvane Hall more pragmatic, though it may cause some logistic concerns.
“There were definitely some compromises. If you build a new structure, you can function in the old building,” she said. “We’re going to have a lot of dust and noise and nonsense while they’re building the new building.”
The renovation and construction of the new facility will be done in two stages, which should take between 12 and 18 months, Long said.
“Our hope is that we’ll do the new building addition first, and then we’ll do the renovation of Mulvane second, so that you can still have classes in Mulvane during the construction process,” she said.
After years of discussion, Russell said she’s happy to see the science building actually happening. She said there was a lot of uncertainty, especially during a time when the university was changing leaders, but Russell said she has been impressed by Long’s efforts.
“It was hard to have confidence in an unknown, so that leads to a certain amount of pessimism,” she said. “I am a glass-half-full kind of person, so I always believed it would happen. I wasn’t sure of the form it would take. I wasn’t sure of the timing.”
The next step in the process is to determine the interior design of the building, Russell said.
“We have ideas of what spaces we want, but how we’re going to work out classroom space, office space and my-department space versus your-department space – there’s going to be a bit of conversation there,” she said.
Senior Bliss Hartnett, a chemistry major, said she sees various needs for the science building.
“I think it will be an improvement for the science department to have larger and newer facilities. Any way you can get new space is good,” Hartnett said. “Physics could use some additional lab space, and it would be nice to have a computer lab for the students.”
Russell said the new addition should provide adequate lab space and potentially some smaller labs to provide space for students to do independent work.
With open areas outside the building, inside the building and in a glass walkway that has been designed to connect the old and the new, Long said there should be plenty of what faculty thought was one of the most important features for the building – room.
“One of the exciting things about the building was that one of the key things for our faculty was to have good student space,” Long said. “I was really pleased because the architect we’re working with really understands the importance of student spaces, class spaces and labs.”
Russell said the main loss will be several trees from the Ivan Boyd Memorial Arboretum, which was named for the professor who began the mission to introduce various tree specimens to campus. To assure minimal tree loss, the addition was projected east, as opposed to the original plan to build south toward Clarice L. Osborne Memorial Chapel.
“We’re going to lose some trees, and we’ve started planning for that. It’s sad to lose some of the older trees, but we’ll definitely seed out, replant and preserve the green space on campus. I think we worked pretty hard to maintain the appearance of campus by bending the building,” Russell said.
With new facilities, Russell said the renovated and expanded Mulvane Hall should boost faculty morale by providing new space and enhance all the science programs by providing better facilities.
“When you think about the type of person who is attracted to science, I think that person is attracted to the new, sleek, modern,” she said. “I feel that a building that can house the beautiful equipment we have will be more attractive to the high school senior.”
Russell said the only thing to do now is to continue the conversation and wait each step in the building process.
“I wish it was here already, but I’m excited about it,” she said.between $18 million and $20 million, ground can be broken for the new project.
Long said she hopes to draw from the history of Mulvane to help move the project forward.
“We haven’t done much fundraising in the last six months because we’ve been waiting to get a design,” she said. “As we’re starting to talk to potential donors and key constituents in the area, what we’re hearing is that they really like the idea to preserve Mulvane.”
Professor of Biology Darcy Russell was first consulted about the construction of a new science facility about six years ago by former University President Dan Lambert and then-academic dean Stuart Dorsey.
“They asked me if this project was possible,” she said. “Early on, basically what my job was was to go to places that had done projects like this.”
Russell, who had experience planning for a new science facility at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., took colleagues to a conference at Drury University in Springfield, Mo., to discuss the necessities for current and future curricula.
“Then, we designed a building that was our ultimate dream building,” she said.
However, she said funding limitations made an addition to Mulvane Hall more pragmatic, though it may cause some logistic concerns.
“There were definitely some compromises. If you build a new structure, you can function in the old building,” she said. “We’re going to have a lot of dust and noise and nonsense while they’re building the new building.”
The renovation and construction of the new facility will be done in two stages, which should take between 12 and 18 months, Long said.
The next step in the process is to determine the interior design of the building.
Senior Bliss Hartnett, a chemistry major, said she sees various needs for change.
“I think it will be an improvement for the science department to have larger and newer facilities. Any way you can get new space is good,” Hartnett said. “Physics could use some additional lab space, and it would be nice to have a computer lab for the students.”
With new facilities, Russell said the renovated and expanded Mulvane Hall should boost faculty morale by providing new space and enhance all the science programs by providing better facilities.
“When you think about the type of person who is attracted to science, I think that person is attracted to the new, sleek, modern,” she said.