The Integrated Science Initiative plan included evaluating the existing facilities for sciences which were disjointed and deterred interaction among the faculty, staff, and students. Recognizing that the future of sciences and research is to be interdisciplinary and collaborative, the team worked with a diverse steering committee comprised of deans, key faculty leaders, working groups of faculty in chemistry, physics, biology, and math, and colleagues in the campus facilities department. The overarching goals are to enhance outstanding scholarship and educational opportunities through integration, proximity, flexible adaptation, and faculty growth of the sciences. The result is a comprehensive plan that satisfies programmatic needs based on a mix of new construction, renovation, and adaptive reuse while optimizing utilization of specialized, shared spaces that support interdisciplinary goals.

For the Department of Physics, the team quantified and qualified pressing needs, including current and future research directions, and teaching/learning paradigms. A thematic program was subsequently developed to characterize the Department of Chemistry’s vision for the future, which resulted in the renovation of Bryan Hall and the investment in Millstone Plaza to enhance pedestrian connectivity.