By Emma Wilson, CALS Communication Services
Several CALS departments are excited to be moving into a new home in the brand new Advanced Teaching and Researching Building (ATRB).
Located on the corner of Stange Road and Pammel Drive on the north side of campus, the ARTB was first scheduled to move faculty and staff in by spring break.
With delays in construction and acquiring federal permits for certain departments, faculty and staff will wait a few more weeks before making a home in the newly constructed facility.
“We deal with a lot of plant pathogens and if we want to culture them and have them in labs, we need federal permits to do so,” says Thomas Baum, chair of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology. “Our estimated time to start moving in is now the end of April and to be fully operational in the new building by the end of May.”
Moves to ATRB
The Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology will be moving in its entirety to the new building, and out of its current location in Bessey. That includes 50 faculty and staff.
Also getting new spaces in the ATRB are the Department of Entomology and the Department of Genetics, Development and Cellular Biology. Five entomology and seven GDCB faculty and staff will occupy ATRB.
Moves to Bessey Hall Addition Completed in Fall 2017
With the addition of Bessey, faculty and staff from Science II will be relocated to new addition. This space in Science II will be able to be reallocated for faculty and staff from the Insectary and Genetics Laboratory.
All of the space GDCB occupies in Science II will be moving to ATRB and the renovated space in Bessey. The space in Science II will be for faculty and staff in the department of ENT and NREM who are currently housed in the Insectary and Genetics Laboratory.
Once faculty and staff in GDCB are relocated from Science II to Bessey, renovations will be taking place in Science II. However, construction will not be able to begin until the GDCB faculty and staff have moved to Bessey. Faculty and staff of PLP M in Bessey will move once the okay is given to move into ATRB.
“We need to vacate the space here in Bessey to make room for other departments to move in,” says Baum, “and there’s no firm deadline on doing so.”
Following the successful transitions the university will then be able to demolish five aging structures used by these biosciences departments — Insectary, Genetics Laboratory, Genetics Chick Isolation, Genetics Poultry, and Genetics Storage.
ATRB is expected to be fully occupied by August 2018, with the exception of the fifth floor that will be home to the Nanovaccine Institute, targeted to be completed in the fall of 2019.
Both the two projects of the erection of ATRB and the addition of Bessey Hall make up the Bioscience Facilities Project. These projects create a setting for cross-disciplinary research, education and collaboration within the biosciences majors.
Inside ATRB
“The biggest difference of ATRB than any other building on Iowa State’s campus is the ability staff, faculty, graduate students, and Ph.D. students have to collaborate,” says Baum. “It will bring people together that overlap in different departments as each floor will have 10 lab spaces.”
The Department of Entomology will have five lab spaces on the second floor, housing five faculty members. PLP M will also have five lab spaces on the second floor, two lab spaces on the third floor, and 10 lab spaces on the fourth floor. GDCB will be allocated eight lab spaces on the third floor. Each floor also houses a kitchenette.
“One nice feature is that the 10 labs are really one very big lab,” says Baum. “We hope this feature will lead to synergism in terms that people know each other, talk to each other, share equipment, and help solve one another’s problems.”
The first floor will house the administrative office, a large atrium, conference room, and a 120-seat auditorium that will be allocated for university use.