Science Center

The Science Center is a postmodern structure sheathed in sandstone and designed by Payette Associates of Boston. Built in 2001, it blends in with the stone facades of the neighboring Carnegie Building, Finney Chapel, and Wilder Hall.

The facility actually joins together four structures: half of the Kettering Hall of Science, which housed biology and chemistry; the Sperry Neuroscience Wing; the Wilbur and Orville Wright Laboratory of Physics; and the L-shaped addition that links the three buildings.

Chemistry spaces moved from the east half of Kettering (later demolished) to the second and third floors of the north wing. The area was designed with computers, complex instruments, chemical safety, and contemporary teaching and learning spaces in mind. Chemistry, as well as physics, biology, and neuroscience now share one building, encouraging new connections among the sciences.

The center features classrooms and small encased ledges for quiet study, two lecture halls, faculty research labs, computer labs, a greenhouse on the roof, an atrium, the George R. and Ruth Schoeni Bent Corridor, Perlik Commons, and David Love Lounge. It also encompasses a library that caters to the research needs of the science faculty and their students.