T. BUDD'S LAST CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

The construction of the Johnson Hall of Science was completed on July 1, 2007 and we're putting the final touches in and working out the inevitable bugs. The faculty and staff have moved in and are beginning the second academic year in the building. Thus begins a new era in science education at St. Lawrence. The building has been awarded LEED GOLD certification by the US Greene Building Council.

The landscaping is in and taking root. All of the plants are native to our north country location. Below is the north face.

This is the view from the south. we are planning some art work for the large brick facade along with signage for the building name. The "swale" in the middle of the circle drive is one of two "mini-wetlands" that drain to a much larger wetland constructed south of the building site.The swales begin the treatment process of storm water run off from the building site. In other words, we have created a working landscape, a living academic asset that will be studied as part of the academic mission of three of the science departments.

This is the west side of the west wing showing our potentilla "fence".

This is the view of the courtyard looking toward the south bridge for the second and third floors.

This is the view looking from the south under the bridge into the courtyard.

This picture depicts the gnomen installed so as to cast a shaft of light onto an etched glass wall of the main lobby.

As depicted below the position of the shaft of light on the etching will indicate the time of day and time of year.

Randy Croxton, our sustainable design architect is measuring the position of the light shaft (seen just to the right of his raised arm) on the etching. We'll be developing some interpretive signage for the gnomen as well as for many other elements of the sustainable design.

This is one of the animal holding rooms in the vivarium. Even the rats are happy in their new digs.

This is the first floor west wing hallway. We're still waiting for the display boards to be installed but the marmolium flooring gives a warm feeling to a brightly lit passage. It might interest you to know that there are no incandescent lights in the building. They are all fluorescent and many of those are dimmable.

Dr. Ana Estevez is organizing the cell biology teaching lab. Note the brightness of the natural daylighting in the room. Also note the clock on the wall. All of the teaching labs have clocks that are synchronized by GPS satellite signals. Johnson Hall is the only building on campus with clocks that all indicate the same time and the correct time.

Below is the general chemistry teaching lab. Note the seating on the far end of the room. Many of the biology and chemistry courses will be taught almost entirely in the laboratory. We collectively feel that our pre-construction programmatic planning is very nicely preserved in the building design.

This view is of one of several informal community interaction areas that are located throughout the building. This photo was taken prior to the beginning of classes but it is attracting a lot of activity now that faculty, staff and students are fully utilizing the building.

This is the computer/bioinformatics classroom. We've installed new iMACs that can boot in either the MAC operating system or in Windows - that is , it can be both a PC or a MAC. The computer and monitor are one unit so we don't have 25 "boxes" sitting on the desktop or floor. The system is configure so that any student workstation can be projected to the entire class.

Well - that's it. This is my last update. Except for a few bugs and final installations, the building is done. Three years ago, I told the board of trustees that the team of the three Ts and C (Toms Coakley, Greene and Budd and Claude Banker) were ready to build this building. I think we did fine and I've enjoyed the experience. I thank the board for giving me this opportunity. Below is a recent view from the webcam atop the student center. It's a beautiful building. Thank you Sarah.