The first phase is 168,000 square feet of new construction. The second phase, due for completion by the start of the 2012 academic year, is being carved out of a remaining wing of the old Conant Science Building next door. The rest of Conant is being razed and will be replaced by green space. Furniture from the former science and math buildings has been donated to schools in Haiti, university officials said.
At 212,000 square feet, the center has more than double the space it had for math and science studies that had been in two buildings. The new center will be the “largest construction project ever undertaken by an institution in the state university system,’’ said Arthur Goldstein, dean of the college of science and math at BSU.
The center’s first-phase building atrium was done in “tree house’’ style architecture, Goldstein said, with towering glass walls that face the Conant, which should be demolished in the next few weeks.
In the atrium there will be a rain garden, and outside will have a $1 million greenhouse replacing one that had been there since 1924, he said. It will be part of science studies, with plants there used for research.
The layout of the new building, which has Wi-Fi throughout, is more organized than the old. Before, science and math studies were housed in different buildings, with departments somewhat scattered in them, Goldstein said. In the new center, all are under one roof, with each floor designated to a department.
The ground floor houses classroom space and a 200-seat auditorium, while the second floor, with greenhouse and garden views, has open lounges for student studies, with large white boards for student use, and geographic information system (GIS) labs. There is also a wind tunnel, which is used for geographic and aviation studies, Goldstein said.
The third floor is home to biology, the largest major in the sciences, with teaching labs and specialized equipment, and an imaging lab. Overall, the university spent nearly $1 million on new instruments for the center.
