Steve L'Heureux, center, of Great Falls, principal of L'Heureux, Page, Werner, PC architects in Great Falls, introduces the model of the proposed $23 million MSU Chemistry Research Building to members of the facility's planning committee yesterday. (MSU photo by Erin Raley.)

Montana State University yesterday unveiled the design for a $23 million chemistry and biochemistry building that will house researchers working on such cutting-edge advances as anti-cancer therapies, drugs that combat bacteria and fungi and ways to protect eyes from laser damage.

Ground is expected to be broken this summer for the 73,000 sq. ft. MSU Chemistry and Biochemistry Research Building, designed by L'Heureux, Page, Werner, PC architecture firm of Great Falls. The building, which will be located adjacent to the present Linfield Hall parking lot, will be paid for entirely through research funds with no direct costs to Montana taxpayers.

"This building reflects the growing level of national and international prominence of the research and education program in chemistry and biochemistry at Montana State University," said David Dooley, MSU Provost who first came to MSU as chairman of the MSU Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. Dooley is co-chair of the proposed facility's building committee.

Dooley added that the success of the faculty in the competitive national research-funding arena is the primary source of the building's funding.

"(The building) reflects well on the talent, energy and creative excellence of the faculty and the graduate and undergraduate students who work with them," Dooley said.

Sara Jayne Steen, Dean of MSU's College of Letters and Science and co-chair of the project's building committee, said the university recognizes that the state is in a difficult economic climate. "So we have proposed a different funding model to allow the state and university to move forward with this project."

Steen said that when completed in the summer of 2007, the building will house laboratories and offices for about 20 MSU researchers and 180 graduate assistants, research assistants and support staff. Many of those researchers are creating high-tech jobs in Montana as well as working on advances that will provide a better quality of life for all, not to mention improving MSU's quality of education.

"Exciting research will be done in the building, which will be state-of-the-art," Steen said. "When you talk about nanotechnology, antiviral drugs, chemotherapy or work in optics, you have potential for not only exciting and important research but also excellent opportunities for students."

Funding for the project will come from bonds based on indirect costs recovered on grants and contract awarded to chemistry and biochemistry researchers. These funds are referred to as Facilities and Administrative (F and A) costs, according to Tom McCoy, MSU's Vice President for Research, Creativity and Technology Transfer.

"The increase in both the quantity and the quality of research space for the department will result in a significant increase in the competitive grants and contracts awarded to the faulty," McCoy said. "I anticipate that our experience with investing recovered F and A to expand the quantity and quality of research space for the Veterinary Molecular Biology Department will be repeated here. In that case, the increase in grants and contracts awarded to the VMB Department that occurred over just a two-year-period resulted in an increase of recovered F and A that more than covers the annual lease payment."

Paul Grieco, chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well as one of the university's and the state's most prominent researchers, said construction of the facility fulfills a long-time commitment by the university to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

"The new research building will allow research groups to have enhanced scientific interactions and permit continued excellence and growth of the department's research programs into the foreseeable future," Grieco said. "This is an exciting moment in time for chemistry and biochemistry at Montana State University."

Cecilia Vaniman, university planner with MSU Facilities Services, said the centerpiece of the brick, glass, masonry and metal building will be modern laboratories that will line the outside of the building, although the design and model reveal a stately four-story atrium and staircase. Also at the center of the design is a lecture hall "think tank" where scientists will be able to interact with other specialists. Offices for scientists, graduates students and undergraduate researchers and support staff will also be grouped around the faculty mentors.

"It will be a phenomenal space for scientists, post docs, graduate students, undergrads and those interested in this kind of science," Vaniman said. She added that undergraduate classroom labs have been remodeled and will remain in Gaines Hall. "But there will be a lot of student interaction here (in the MSU Chemistry Research Building). We are very excited about it."

Vaniman said now that L'Heureux, Page, Werner and lab consultants RFD (Research Facilities Design of San Diego) are completing documents necessary for bids, the university will advertise for construction bids in the late spring, and the project is expected to begin by mid-summer.

Vaniman said the MSU Chemistry Research Building is one of several building or remodeling projects that are currently on the university's design boards. Plans and drawings will be introduced in the coming weeks for the MSU Black Box Theatre, which will be added onto the MSU VisCom Building. The Black Box Theatre is part of the $27.6-million Student Facilities Enhancement Project, passed last spring by MSU student voters.

The impending renovation of the threadbare Strand Union Building, last remodeled 30 years ago, is also part of the Student Facilities Enhancement project as is a renovated Health and Physical Education Fitness Center.

Vaniman said that the proposed Animal Bioscience Building is waiting for design funding that was included in the Omnibus Funding Bill recently passed by the U.S. Congress. The Animal Bioscience Building is planned for the area between Linfield and the Leon Johnson Building.

"Those buildings will create a pedestrian corridor from Linfield to Herrick Hall that is based on the original campus plan," Vaniman said. "It helps us reinforce planning concepts for the development of campus."

MSU and Native American Studies officials are also fundraising for a proposed Native American Studies Building to be located in the center of campus, Vaniman said. And, plans to renovate the duck pond area have also been proposed.

"It is an exciting and busy time for us," she said.

Written by Carol Schmidt and posted 12/9/04.