By
Cyndy Cole
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Faculty and students from the UA colleges of science, agriculture and life sciences, medicine, pharmacy and engineering and mines will be working side by side in new laboratory building scheduled to be completed in 2006.
"(The building) is unique because it will bring researchers from a number of different fields together to interact with each other, which has proven to be the most effective way to do research," said David Duffy, director of campus facilities planning.
Projects in the Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology Building will focus on disease detection, treatment and prevention, and advancements in agriculture.
The interdisciplinary building is one of a handful of its kind in the nation, said Michael Cusanovich, professor of chemistry and molecular biophysics and director of Arizona research laboratories.
"We're among the first institutions to go in this direction (of biomedical and biotechnological research)," Cusanovich said.
Duffy said the building is the first part of a planned biotechnology complex and will be located in what are now parking areas between East Mabel Street and East Speedway Boulevard to the north and south, and between North Cherry Avenue and North Campbell Avenue on the east and west. A new parking garage will be constructed to offset the loss of parking spaces.
More than 30 professors will be hired to work in the facility, where undergraduate and graduate students will do lab work. There will be 200 offices for staff and students.
Costing $60 million, the Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology Building will be slightly larger in size than the Education building.
Eventually, the complex will be expanded until there is office space for 50 faculty and 500 staff and students.
The building is one of two facilities initially approved at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting at Northern Arizona University last month.
The Arizona Health Sciences Center Academic Facility, a classroom and office building, will provide space for the colleges of public health, pharmacy and nursing.
The academic facility will be in the same vicinity as the Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology Building, but will be smaller and will cost $30 million.
The building will also provide an opportunity to promote diversity within the three colleges, by increasing enrollment, an ABOR project justification report states.
Shared teaching space and video conferencing to support distance learning will be features in the new academic facility.
This facility will provide a base for the College of Public Health, which is now housed in 18 different locations.
