Hamilton, NY – The Robert H.N. Ho Science Center was dedicated in a September 15 ceremony at Colgate University. Described as “transformative” for the University both in form and in academic approach to the sciences, the 121,200 s.f. Center is designed to encourage interdisciplinary scientific research, as well as collaborative teaching and learning. It houses 40 research labs and 13 teaching labs, as well as the University’s environmental studies program and the departments of geography, geology, physics and astronomy, and part of the biology department.
Its 55-seat 3-D visualization lab allows students to tour a blood cell or watch the a nebula. The Center also contains a teaching greenhouse, a multi-instrumented analytical lab, and a rooftop weather station. The geology department’s museum will open in 2008. The Center also houses the new Picker Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies in the Sciences and Mathematics.
As part of the Center’s interdisciplinary approach to science, offices are intermingled rather than segregated by discipline. Science is presented as visible and engaging, with glass corners at all lab entrances to give passersby a glimpse into the spaces within. Corridors, complete with white boards, are designed with ‘pooling’ spaces for spontaneous conversation. Glass panels on stairs and railings were etched by a local artist with images ranging from subatomic particles to the universe, showing the scale and scope of sciences studied at the Center.
The building, on a steeply sloped site, is clad in locally quarried bluestone to match existing buildings on campus.
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