Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2002
Don't blame Marcia Bjørnerud 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, Bjørnerud, with the strong-back help of Assistant Professor of Geology Jeff Clark and several students, spent a good portion of her summer packing the contents of Lawrence's geology department, including thousands of rock, mineral, and fossil specimens, and moving it all to a new home -- not as cataclysmic an event as a volcanic eruption, but sufficiently disruptive just the same.
After spending nearly 50 years in Stephenson Hall, the geology department moved in 1999 to the basement of Briggs Hall, where it took up temporary residency while Science Hall was under construction. This past summer was moving time again as Lawrence geologists relocated to the second floor of newly renovated Youngchild Hall. It is a campus address Bjørnerud hopes is carved in stone.
"I want to believe I've moved all those rocks for the last time," says Bjørnerud, associate professor of 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 a three-phase building project designed to provide Lawrence with state-of-the-art facilities for its programs in the physical and natural sciences (Science Hall) and the social sciences, mathematics, and computer science (Lucia R. Briggs Hall).
Youngchild and Science Halls are connected by a three-story glass atrium, allowing a nearly seamless connection between departments and laboratories housed in the two facilities. In addition to geology and environmental science on the second floor, Youngchild also houses the physics department on the first floor and the zoology, botany, and aquatic ecology aspects of biology on the third floor.
"I'm not quite sure how they did it, but we really do have everything we had before, only more of it, all within the same square footage," says Professor of Biology Brad Rence, who served as the faculty construction coordinator on the renovation.
"We have places to put equipment and specimens so that they are always available and accessible," adds Bjørnerud. "We have some fantastic rock, mineral, and fossil collections that previously had to be stashed in out-of-the way cabinets and closets. Now they can be easily and regularly incorporated into our teaching."
One of the most impressive features of the new Youngchild is a six-room integrated suite of labs -- affectionately known as "the Laser Palace" and emblazoned with a neon sign designating it as such -- that will support a wide variety of experimentation for the physics department.
John Brandenberger, the Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics, 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 "really goes beyond my wildest expectations. It is a substantial increase in space both in quality and quantity. Our laser suite offers students space and layout that make it truly remarkable for an undergraduate institution."
