Life Sciences Building on schedule to open Fall 2014

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Construction of the Life Sciences Building is completed and the building scheduled to open for Fall 2014 classes.

NewLifeSciencesBldg
The New Life Sciences Building. (Sarah Hill)

With 265,000 square feet of classroom, lab, auditorium and atrium space, the building is significant in size and scale, said Okland Construction project manager Harmon Tobler.

“Not only did (BYU) build a building to facilitate demand, but they built a very nice building with very nice equipment, and the facilities are second to none,” Tobler said.

The $95-million project will replace the John A. Widtsoe Building. It houses labs with up-to-date technology and was built to help students and faculty maximize their effectiveness in their research and academic work, said Todd Hollingshead, BYU spokesperson.

While the new building will be a great asset to the College of Life Sciences, some are sad to say goodbye to the Widtsoe Building, which currently houses the classes and labs for the college and will be demolished in 2015.

“Any time a part of campus goes down, there are people that have good memories in that building and are probably a little bit sad to see a part of campus change,” Hollingshead said. “But at the same time I think our students and faculty embrace the change when it’s so beneficial to them.”

The new building also includes more than 100,000 square feet of disguised parking, which will be mainly reserved for faculty. Plans for the parking spaces attempt to help with BYU’s parking problem, as Hollingshead said BYU hopes the new parking structure will free other G and Y lots for students.

The building will also impact students who use the south staircase to get to upper campus because it will offer an indoor stairwell that will take students from lower campus to upper campus.

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