Community celebrates start of science project
A few small shovels of dirt at an early November campus ceremony marked a huge step in ensuring the continued
success of Whitworth's thriving science program. The ceremony signified the start of construction on a new $32 million biology/chemistry facility on the site of the former fine arts building. The three-story, 63,000-square-foot structure will feature state-of-the-art laboratories and instrumentation, and classrooms that can be converted to labs to meet the university's science and classroom needs for the next 20 years. The building is slated to open in fall 2011.
This is the first phase of a planned $53 million project to serve Whitworth's science students, whose numbers have swelled by 50 percent over the past decade, and to meet the urgent state and national need for well-educated scientists, engineers and science educators. Whitworth has designed the facility to meet the Green Building Council's LEED Silver Certification by implementing a number of sustainable practices in the construction and operation of the building. Phase II of the project includes a 16,000-square-foot addition to the north end of the Eric Johnston Science Center and renovation of the rest of the building.
Whitworth's biology, chemistry and physics departments currently are housed in the Johnston Center, which opened in 1966. The physics department will remain in the Johnston Center after the new building is completed, and the math and computer science department, which is currently in the Lindaman Center, will move to the vacated space in Johnston, along with the health science department.
For more information about the biology/chemistry building and the story of the sciences at Whitworth, or to make a gift to the project, visit a new interactive website at www.whitworth.edu/supportingthesciences.
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