By John Saccenti, Staff Writer
With an interior and exterior of mostly steel and clear glass, visitors to the new Frick Chemistry Laboratory at Princeton University can see clear through from one side to another, no matter where they are standing.
Filtering the light are 216 photovoltaic panels on the roof and spread out across the clean, new building are pedestrian bridges that span the 27-foot space between two wings. Floating gently throughout, suspended from the ceiling, are a series of white sculptures called “Resonance” that resemble clouds and were created by Kendall Buster.
”You really feel like you’re standing in the computer model,” said University Architect Ron McCoy, during a tour of the facility on Monday.
Construction began on the 265,000-square-foot building in fall 2007 and finished earlier this summer. Currently home to 150 researchers and their staff, and an upper level university class, university officials are clearly proud of the facility.
”We like to think of it as at the forefront of the academic system,” said project manager Jim Wallace.
The building is expected to be fully operational for the spring semester and is 10 percent bigger than the Old Frick building, now known simply as 20 Washington Road. When fully operational, the building will include up to 30 faculty members, 30 departmental staff members and 250 to 300 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research staff, with each student being able to work at their own space with a dedicated fume hood. University spokeswoman Emily Aronson said the estimated construction cost of the building was $278 million.
Upon entering the building, visitors will see that one side has three stories of chemistry labs, each shielded by clear glass as if to display what is going on inside. On the opposite side is a series of offices and conference rooms. Between the two is ample space to meet and study.
The facility was designed with input from professionals, including chemists, staff members, and through visits to similar labs throughout the country.
”They played a very active role in planning the individual labs,” said Mr. McCoy. “Each individual lab was developed in detail with the input of the individuals responsible for each space.”
Among the “details” included are mechanical doors on the fume hoods, which activate automatically if they are left open too long, dry-erase boards for notes within arms’ reach, nearby desks for note taking, and clearly marked drawers and compartments to keep things safe and in easy access.
The university also made efforts to make the building as “sustainable” as possible. Features include exterior glazing with sunscreens to optimize daylight on the interior, photovoltaic panels, high-efficiency fume hoods, a Graywater system that includes a 12,000-gallon rainwater collection cistern, radiators that heat individual offices, ceiling-mounted chill beams, landscaped rain gardens and more.
Also part of the project was construction of the Steicker Bridge, which spans Washington Road and connects the athletics and science buildings on the east side of campus with new facilities on the west side. The bridge and chemistry building were conceived together, said Mr. Wallace. The bridge opened July 15 and takes pedestrians 350 feet to the foot of the Frick building. Fencing in the bridge are a series of steel ribs woven with a cables for safety.
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