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This story marks the second in an occasional series of in-depth stories on the master plan that the Gazette plans to run over the next several months.
The next story will focus on how the master plan will affect parking and transportation on campus.
There are so many complex pieces to the puzzle that is the new campus master plan it was perhaps natural that attention would first focus on the pieces framing the edges.
In a way, that is what happened last year as the University negotiated with Chapel Hill town officials the details of a new development plan. University officials sought to put the development plan in place in order to expedite the approval process with the town for millions of dollars worth of construction projects set for completion by the end of the decade.
The town approved the plan last October. This year, University officials hope to turn more of their attention to some of the bigger pieces in the center of the puzzle. No single piece is any bigger than the Science Complex, or more central to the University's research mission.
Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, said no other piece will fill a bigger hole or invite as many new and exciting connections between people and research throughout campus.
That's because it will replace Venable Hall, long regarded by faculty as a different kind of Pit on campus. Two years ago, Venable was one of the buildings that organizers of a campus tour made sure legislators saw to convince them of the magnitude of capital needs here. Weeks later, the legislature authorized a statewide bond referendum that voters approved the following fall. The referendum will generate $3.1 billion to be spread throughout the state's university and community college systems. Carolina's share amounts to about $510 million, which will pay for slightly less than half of the $1.1 billion worth of construction planned for the campus over the next eight years.
Why it means so much
One way to measure the scale and significance of the Science Complex is to consider the amount of money it will take to build it.
Once all three phases are completed, the Science Complex will cost a total of $187 million, or about 17 percent of the planned $1.1 billion. Of the $510 million in bond money that Carolina will get, $84 million of it will go to the Science Complex. The rest of the money for the complex will have to be generated through a combination of private fund raising, fees and overhead receipts.
Another way to measure its significance is to look at the dramatic improvement in working conditions it will produce.
Trying to conduct state-of-the-art research in the conditions now found on campus is analogous to trying to break a new land speed record in a souped-up Model T. Sooner or later, you need to get new wheels to stay in the race.
Henry Ford started building the Model T in 1908, while Venable opened its doors in 1923.
Model Ts stopped rolling off Ford's assembly line in 1927 to make way for the new and improved Model A. Venable's doors remain open.
Douglas Kelly, senior associate dean for the sciences within the College of Arts and Sciences, said Venable is only one of many antiquated facilities that have hampered research over the years.
"We have people in physics and in materials science doing cutting-edge research that involves sensing and manipulating very small things -- things like a virus or a single molecule, hundreds of thousands of times smaller than a pinhead," Kelly said. "If you try to measure or move such things, any vibration, or any stray radio waves, will make accuracy impossible."
The only space scientists have for this kind of work now is in buildings that are 50 or more years old, and no one thought about vibration-free space in those days, Kelly said. "A truck going by, or even a person walking in certain places, causes enough vibration to disrupt the work. It's amazing that our scientists have been able to get around this by building small vibration-free zones and choosing their times of work carefully, but we can't continue to lead in such research with the spaces we have."
A center for collaboration
Waldrop took over as vice chancellor for research and graduate studies half a year ago excited about the possibilities that new buildings like the multi-facility Science Complex will create for the University's vital research enterprise.
Last year, Waldrop said, the external support the University received for research was just under $439 million. That is a staggering amount, Waldrop said, and it is hard to imagine what it could become once the scientists have facilities commensurate in quality to their talent.
Waldrop said Carolina already had a culture of collegiality and collaboration that cuts across disciplines. Waldrop, who earned his three degrees at Carolina, said that culture is one of the things that drew him back here.
Once the Science Complex opens, the campus will have a physical environment with a functionality that invites researchers to join heads and share work. And Waldrop is convinced that it will be in the unexplored creases and crevices of interdisciplinary research where the most exciting discoveries will be found.
"If you look nationally at the way research is being done and the way funding agencies are providing support, it's to support interdisciplinary efforts, bringing together traditional engineering and physical sciences, physics, mathematics and biological and life sciences," Waldrop said.
Waldrop said the pedestrian bridge that will join the Science Complex to buildings to the north and south will serve as a symbolic as well as physical link helping to solidify relationships that already have been forged between the School of Medicine, the physical sciences and biological sciences.
Risa Palm, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the Science Complex will become a "hub of innovative, scientific discovery, teaching and learning, and a physical embodiment of the kind of synergistic activity that makes Carolina unique."
Palm said the work involved in emerging fields of study simply cannot fit into the campus's current inventory of buildings.
"Many of our historic science classrooms and laboratories were built long before anyone ever heard of genomics, bioinformatics, virtual reality or nano-technology -- areas where Carolina is emerging as a world leader," Palm said.
Palm said the complex will bring together faculty and students from the health sciences with those from the College of Arts and Sciences in physical, biological and social sciences.
"In genomics, it will become easier for researchers in the medical school to work with our faculty in biology, chemistry, computer graphics and materials science on the kinds of exciting, interdisciplinary projects that are vital to our understanding of the human genome and the secrets it holds for preventing and treating life-threatening diseases," Palm said.
Kelly agreed. "Our science community in Chapel Hill is internationally known not only for its research strength but also for the extraordinary degree of cooperation that exists between schools and between departments within schools," he said. "Our programs in materials science and in genomics are prime examples of how collaboration among units can produce science, and science education, in new and emerging areas."
Last February, Chancellor James Moeser announced a $245 million public-private investment in a genome sciences initiative. Waldrop said that genomics is one of the most promising areas of collaboration, and evidence of that can be seen in the combined leadership of Terry Magnuson and Jeff Dangl at the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences.
Magnuson is director of the Department of Genetics in the School of Medicine. Magnuson's arrival on campus two years ago helped to kick-start the University's major commitment to the study of genomics. His research interest is mammalian genetics.
Dangl is the John N. Couch professor in the Department of Biology within the College of Arts & Sciences. His research interest is plant genetics and cellular biology.
The next wave of collaboration will be proteomics, Waldrop said. While genomics is the study of the structure and function of genes, proteomics determines the function of proteins encoded by an organism's entire genome.
The timing
Construction on the first phase of the Science Complex still is more than a year away and it will not be finished until the summer of 2005. This phase includes an addition to Phillips Hall along with the first new science building, which will be located between Kenan Lab and Wilson Library.
In the second phase of the project, set to begin in fall of 2005, Venable will be demolished and in its place a second building will be erected to add more teaching, office and research space. The project also includes a 470-space parking deck. The completion date for this phase is fall of 2008.
Finally, a third science building will be added during phase three, with construction scheduled to start and finish about the same time as the second building.
Waldrop knows that expensive new buildings are not, by themselves, enough to make a University great. But their influence cannot be ignored or discounted, either, he said.
A great University consists of a high-quality faculty matched by high-quality students. Great buildings, though, help entice people here and then allow them to do their best work, Waldrop said.
Kelly said the aging science buildings have left Carolina at a competitive disadvantage for years. "It's very difficult, and in many cases embarrassing, to try to recruit top young scientists with the space we have to show them," Kelly said. "We're in danger of losing the best young scientists and science educators to our competitors and to other universities who aspire to compete with us, because they can offer laboratory space in modern buildings."
Finding the right fit for Horace Williams
Over the months ahead, Waldrop will lead efforts to find the right fit for the Horace Williams tract, nearly 1,000 acres of mostly undeveloped land off of Airport Road less than a mile from central campus. To put that in perspective, the property is about the size of Central Park.
While the tract is not included in the master plan, University officials have been working with the same architectural firm, Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore, to coordinate planning efforts for Horace Williams.
When Waldrop began his job here, he took over the responsibility of overseeing Horace Williams development.
Already, Horace Williams has been identified as a place where faculty and students will live and work, shop and play, and where marketable ideas generated by faculty can be connected to private businesses.
The selling of intellectual property generated by University faculty is known as "technology transfer," and it has received increasing emphasis here in recent months. Waldrop said he shares the same commitment that the chancellor and provost have in promoting it.
Other signs of the University's increased emphasis on technology transfer were the arrival of Mark Crowell to direct the Office of Technology and ongoing efforts to create a venture capital fund through the Carolina Management Corporation, Waldrop said.
Waldrop said he is pushing very hard to develop incubator space for faculty members involved in technology transfer through start-up companies or other activities. Horace Williams will provide the ideal setting.
"In today's world, when you are recruiting faculty, many of them have a great interest in seeing their ideas flowing out of their laboratories and into the private sector," Waldrop said. "All of these will continue to help us maintain the faculty that we have and recruit other faculty in."
But that's not to say that Horace Williams will be developed solely for scientists and entrepreneurs.
"Everybody has said they don't want to be off-campus, but it's not necessarily an either-or question," Waldrop said. "If you say `Do you want to be totally out at Horace Williams?' most people would say no. But if you say `Would you like to have additional space?' the answer might be different."
The development of Horace Williams will be overseen by an advisory committee that includes not only members of the University community but residents and officials from the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and from Orange County government as well.
"All the people who are involved will bring something to the table and to have complete agreement on everything is not going to happen," Waldrop said. "On the other hand, I think, having complete agreement about the overall mission and vision, if done carefully, can be achieved."
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