The Corporation's Committee on Budget and Finance approved the search for an architect to renovate Hunter Laboratory at its meeting this weekend. The Committee on Facilities and Design, which is in charge of the search, hopes to have a recommendation for the Corporation in time for its May meeting, said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management.
The renovation will create more much-needed lab space for research, Associate Provost Rod Beresford said.
"At the moment, there's no lab space that's unallocated," he said. The new space would allow for the growth of existing research programs, recruitment of new faculty and the expansion of the new School of Engineering, he added.
There have been initial brainstorming sessions about what the renovations will entail, Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98 said. Though plans are still taking shape, the University hopes to renovate the first floor to increase classroom space while converting the top floors into laboratories for both the School of Engineering and the Center for Environmental Studies, Kertzer said.
"Hunter is not a panacea, but we think it can be renovated in such a way that it provides about 30,000 net square feet of pretty flexible research space," Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
Because Hunter sits at the heart of campus and because the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences plans to vacate the building when renovations to the Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory conclude this fall, Kertzer said he hopes the renovations are completed soon so the building does not sit idle.
While the Corporation has approved the search, a separate vote is needed to approve the expenditures and renovation itself.
