Undeterred users
Students who enter the third floor of H.J. Patterson Hall expecting to see cluttered, dingy laboratories will now find a state-of-the-art, remodeled space — one that officials redesigned specifically with student interests in mind.
At the end of the summer, officials completed renovations to five labs, three lab preparation spaces, nine offices and a communal gathering space on the right wing of the building’s third floor — a $5 million project that began in 2008 to create a more comfortable, student-oriented atmosphere. The Microbiology Building also saw a significant face-lift over the summer with the installation of five new air hangars, which are used to push cold air throughout the building.
Facilities Management officials said the old labs in H.J. Patterson were severely outdated — plagued with a poorly functioning central air-conditioning system, unstable electrical systems, window air leakage and a design that limited student interaction. And when cellular biology researchers moved out of those spaces into a different building in 2008, Associate Dean of Biology Robert Infantino and Facilities Management officials took the opportunity to remodel those vacant spaces.
“We started thinking about trying to create a teaching and learning center,” Infantino said. “The entire interior was torn down and started from scratch.”
Now the labs feature new windows with electronic sensors that regulate airflow, centrally monitored temperature control, brand new computers, LCD projectors, wireless Internet and remodeled work stations designed to spark dialogue among students.
“It’s a night-and-day difference,” said anatomy, physiology and genetics lecturer and lab coordinator Tammatha O’Brien. “Before, you felt like you stepped back in time… they were historic.”
And like other more recently constructed buildings such as Knight Hall and the Jeong H. Kim Engineering building, there’s now a communal space located in the hallway in an effort to make the space more welcoming.
“We didn’t have anything like that before, they just sat in the hall with their legs across the hall,” Infantino said. “It is a very student-oriented space; that was our goal.”
Freshman journalism major Lily Hua — who has a biology discussion in one of the new labs — said she’s excited to benefit from the updated technology.
“There are new laptops and everything,” Hua said. “Students — especially students from out of state — are paying a lot of money, so the fact that they’re getting their money back with all the high-tech additions is good.”
Facilities Management officials also addressed a glaring issue with the air conditioning equipment in the Microbiology Building over the summer.
Facilities Management Vice President Carlo Colella said the air handling units were rusty and in danger of breaking beyond repair.
“Had we not replaced them, they could have failed and they wouldn’t have functioned,” Colella said. “It was at risk of deteriorating to the point where it would not work.”
Colella said Facilities Management was able to acquire funds from the facilities renewal account to install new air hangars to ensure all rooms would remain fully air-conditioned.
The project could only be completed during the summer while students were gone, a feat Colella said was remarkable.
“The success story is to be able to accomplish that amount of work… in such a short period of time,” he said.
foley at umdbk dot com
