The Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory is on track to reopen the first week of October after more than a year of renovation, bringing the Cognitive, Linguistics and Psychological Sciences department under one roof for the first time since the July 2010 department merger.
Construction is scheduled to wrap up Sept. 30, with the CLPS department moving into labs and faculty offices the week of Oct. 3. But classes will not be held inside the building until the spring, said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management.
Department members previously housed in Metcalf relocated to 229 Waterman Street last summer. That space has posed some problems and inconveniences, said Guillaume Riesen '12, a CLPS concentrator conducting research in a computational vision lab. The Wayland Square space is newer and cleaner than Metcalf used to be — "medicinal, in a way," Riesen said. The current facilities are also more spacious and, because they are further from the main campus, quieter.
"Not many people make it out there who don't need to be there," Riesen said.
But the distance is also a drawback. It was easier to recruit experiment volunteers in Metcalf because participants did not have to travel as far, Riesen said. A department-wide policy compensates subjects at the Wayland Square facilities an additional $5 per session.
Clara Kliman-Silver '13, who does research in two CLPS labs, said Metcalf was crumbling around itself. One of its most notorious features was its elevator, which was so unreliable that taking a nighttime ride was "an experience" for department members, she said.
"Wayland Square doesn't have quite the same charm, though it's certainly a nicer place to be," Kilman-Silver said.
Students and faculty expressed excitement for Metcalf's renovations, including the newly refurbished auditorium with large exposed windows that is "completely unrecognizable" from its predecessor, said William Warren, a CLPS professor. The building will also include a "teaching studio" and additional conference rooms, he said.
Other features to debut include a faculty library, a courtyard at the building's center and a public art display by artist and Yale School of Art critic Sarah Oppenheimer '95. The piece replaces the doors facing Lincoln Field as an "intervention into the building," said Jo-Ann Conklin, director of the David Winton Bell Gallery and member of the Public Art Committee that selected the piece. Two glass panes partially mirror each other so that, depending on the time of day, students who look down into the display can see outside, into the basement or their own reflections — showing how perceptions of the world can differ, Conklin said.
But the renovations do not address the lack of parking near Metcalf, said James Morgan, another CLPS professor. Morgan, whose infant research laboratory benefited from the parking space in Wayland Square, said local families who participate in child development research often have a hard time finding parking. Despite lobbying for better parking, treatment of the problem has been "disappointing," Morgan said.
Some graduate students have also expressed concern that they will not have enough space in the renovated Metcalf, Riesen said.
Though the rooms themselves are bigger, more graduate students are sharing space in the new layout, wrote Adam Darlow GS in an email to The Herald. Five to eight students are assigned to each room, in contrast to the three to four who shared space in the past, he wrote.
The relocation to Wayland Square "caused disruptions for everyone," Warren said, but anticipation is high for the new building. Faculty took a tour two weeks ago, and Warren called the space "totally transformed."
"You won't recognize the place on the inside," he said.
