Grand opening for Terasaki Life Sciences Building set for Oct. 25
The Terasaki Life Sciences Building has been renovated. Construction cost $48 million but improved the building’s research laboratories.
By Suzy Strutner
Oct. 4, 2010 2:20 a.m.
Paul Barber used to bring a fleece or two to work each day.
“The thermostats don’t function,” Barber said of the UCLA Botany Building. “A lot of times I had to wear a jacket in the office because it was so cold.”
Along with dozens of other faculty, Barber transported his research supplies to the newly completed Terasaki Life Sciences Building a few weeks ago.
The improvements not only include working thermostats, but 33 new laboratories. The building also boasts an improved ventilation system for chemicals along with novelties such as a temperature-specific room for insect samples and rows of chambers perfect for plant growth.
The $48 million project will host some researchers formerly stationed in the Botany Building and the other Life Sciences building.
The Terasaki Building is located near the Botany Building and Hilgard Avenue, which is separate from the similarly named Life Sciences Building near Lakretz Hall. About 100 undergraduate students have already transferred their supplies and begun conducting research alongside UCLA professors in the new facility.
Funded mainly by Professor Emeritus Paul Terasaki, the building is set to celebrate its grand opening on Oct. 25, according to Victoria Sork, dean of life sciences. Sork hopes to have all transferring faculty moved into the new facility within the next few weeks.
The building was constructed last year after more than two decades of proceedings. Sork said setbacks, including meager state funding and earthquake safety concerns in existing buildings kept the project at intermittent standstills for some 25 years until Terasaki made his recent donation.
The Terasaki labs beat out their predecessors in a handful of ways, said building manager Cyndie Kelly.
“(The building) has an open lab design that gives multiple labs the chance to network with one another,” Kelly said, referring to features including common kitchen areas and a floor where computational scientists share space with empirical scientists, sparking collaboration.
Barber praised the building’s boosted functionality despite its lower square footage, likely an offshoot of faculty involvement in the construction process.
“A faculty committee worked with architects to make sure the labs would fit the research we’re doing,” Sork said, “Every wing has a specialization.”
Yet with a lack of space, not all life sciences researchers will be savoring this specialization.
Some faculty will continue work in the old Life Sciences building while renovations such as ventilation hoods and a sprinkler system are installed.
Most agreed, though, that the Terasaki facility is the place to be.
“We had the Botany lab get flooded three times from the roof,” Barber said, chuckling. “This is a nice modern building. … It’s a very efficient and effective use of space.”
