$10 Million Facelift: Reopening of Youngchild Hall Completes Major Three-Phase Science Initiative at Lawrence University

APPLETON, WIS. -- Don't blame Marcia Bjornerud for hoping her newly relocated geology department finally has some of the same kind of permanence as the subject matter she studies.

For the second time in three years, Bjornerud, with the strong-back help of fellow geologist Jeff Clark and several students, spent a good portion of her summer packing up all the contents of Lawrence University's geology department, including thousands of rock, mineral and fossil specimens, and moving it all to a new home. Certainly not exactly as cataclysmic as a volcanic eruption, but plenty disruptive just the same.

After spending nearly 50 years in Stephenson Hall, Lawrence's geology department moved to the basement of Briggs Hall in 1999 where it took up temporary residency while Science Hall was under construction. This summer was moving time again as Lawrence geologists relocated to the second floor of newly renovated Youngchild Hall. It is a campus address Bjornerud hopes is carved in stone.

"I want to believe I've moved all those rock samples for the last time," said Bjornerud, associate professor of geology and chair of the department. "We spent more than two years working on the design for our renovated space. And now we're absolutely thrilled to have both adequate and appropriate working space for the many and varied teaching and research activities we conduct in geology."

The reopening this fall of the 74,000-square foot Youngchild Hall of Science following a $10 million, year-long renovation represents the completion of an ambitious three-phase building project designed to provide Lawrence with state-of-the-art facilities for its programs in the physical and natural sciences, the social sciences, mathematics and computer science.

Beginning with the opening of the 55,400-square foot Lucia R. Briggs Hall for mathematics and the social sciences in 1997, Lawrence has constructed anew or renovated three major academic facilities at a cost of more than $36 million.

Science Hall, a 78,000 square-foot facility devoted to the molecular sciences, built at a cost of $18.1 million, was dedicated in October 2000.

The renovation of Youngchild Hall of Science, which was originally built in 1964, follows Lawrence's "hands-on" approach to science education on which Science Hall is based.

Spaces are designed to allow teaching and research to be inextricably intertwined. The renovated design also built in flexibility, enabling students and professors to move freely from the chalk board, where a scientific concept is being taught, to the computer for a visualization, to the lab table for experimentation all within the same space.

Youngchild and Science halls are physically connected by a three-story glass atrium, allowing a nearly seamless connection between departments and laboratories housed in the two facilities. In addition to the geology and environmental science departments on the second floor, Youngchild Hall will house the physics department on the first floor and the zoology, botany and aquatic ecology aspects of biology on the third floor.

Each floor in Youngchild Hall has generous amounts of redesigned and updated space devoted to teaching laboratories as well as specialized labs designed for collaborative student-faculty research.

"I'm not quite sure how they did it, but we really have everything we had before, only more of it, all within the same square footage," said Professor of Biology Brad Rence, who served as the faculty construction coordinator on the renovation. "It is a much more efficient, exciting and flexible use of space."

"We have places to put equipment and specimens so that they are always available and accessible," said Bjornerud. "We have some fantastic rock, mineral and fossil collections that previously had to be stashed in out-of-the way cabinets and closets. Now these collections can be easily incorporated regularly into our teaching."

One of the most impressive features of Youngchild Hall is a six-room integrated suite of labs -- affectionately known as "the Laser Palace," and emblazoned with a neon sign announcing it as such -- that will support a wide variety of experimentation for the physics department.

Physicist John Brandenberger, whose primary teaching and research interests center around Lawrence's laser laboratory and its array of more than 100 different lasers, says the renovated science facility is akin to the Cubs winning the World Series.

"This really goes beyond my wildest expectations. It is the culmination of an idea I had for a laboratory 15 years ago," says Brandenberger, a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1968. "It is a substantial increase in space both in quality and quantity. Our laser suite offers students space and layout that makes it truly unique for an undergraduate institution. The new Youngchild Hall will serve our department needs and the needs of our students in many wonderful ways for many years to come."

In conjunction with its annual fall meeting, the Lawrence University Board of Trustees will tour and celebrate the reopening of Youngchild Hall on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 5 p.m. in the atrium.