CRS Sirrine used a design process that was novel to most of us, heavily involving the users in the design through "squatters sessions" and several rounds of discussions. The first of these was a week long session beginning July 11, 1984, followed by several others throughout the summer ( see Preliminary Schedule, 7 June 1984). President Davidson had appointed a large Building Committee (see letter of July 20, 1984) headed by David Lunde (Campus Planning), the Genetics and Biochemistry Department Heads (Wyatt W. Anderson and Harry D. Peck), Joshua Laerm (Director, Museum of Natural History), John Casey (physical plant) and Daryl Rowe (Safety services) along with 12 faculty and staff from the units involved.

After examining sites including the Hardman Hall location across from the Graduate Studies Building, the selected site behind the Ecology building and some sites near the current location of the Ramsey complex, the committee's selection was approved by President Davidson on August 13, 1984.

The detailed planning process for the users began in October, 1984, with squaters sessions involving each faculty member of the two departments. These sessions were used to describe the detailed needs of each laboratory and to develop the plan for supporting facilities ( see David Lunde's memo of September 26). The memo from the Genetics faculty members dated October 2, 1984, summarizes the developing plan for the building.

The result of these initial meetings in 1984 was a detailed two year planning process ( see Proposed Project Schedule) beginning with more "squatters" sessions in early February, 1985. The laboratory designs were developed by architect Earl Walls (contracted by CRS Sirrine). As the plan developed, the cost limitation imposed by the Board of Regents had to be revised upwards from $7,500,000 to $15,000,000 in March of 1985 and then from $15,000,000 to $32,000,000 in March of 1986. Even so, the scope of the original plan had to be reduced. First, the Natural History Museum component was removed. At some point, green house facilities were deleted and, later, both the fermentation plant and final finish for the teaching space were left out of the initially contracted budget.

To a large extent the building design was driven by two things, 1) the desire of the faculty to have window space in both labs and offices and 2) the need for fume hoods to be vented directly to the roof ( see letter of April 12, 1985). Neither of these requirements could be satisfied by a building with a compact footprint or a tall building. In the latter case, the space for fume hood risers would occupy more and more square footage as the number of floors increased.

The result of the Winter/Spring 1985 meetings was a building design of three connected towers with four floors each and a basement. This plan placed the building along a diagonal line across the building space continuing a line from the Ecology Building to Green Street. THe proposed footprint of the building is shown below. The proposal totaled about 157,000 square feet of available space.

The next round of planning began in June with tours of the existing facilities of the two departments. Prior to this (in May) there was a suggestion to replace the laboratory planning consultant, Earl Walls, by Knox Associates Ltd. of Chicago. However, since Mr. Walls continued to meet with the faculty through the summer, this replacement must not have actually taken place. The changes to the overall plan that resulted from these meetings are summarized by the Meeting Notes of July 1, 1985.

Drafting of construction documents began in the Fall of 1985 and continued through 1986.

In February of 1986, Frederick Branch of the Chancellor's office informed the legislature of the status of the project. This letter lead the legislature to differ full funding to the 1987 budget. However, at the same time the University was being informed of authorization of the full budget. This may have contributed to a series of widely published rumors that the legislature and/or the regents planned to cut the project from its budget requests. These rumors resulted in a furious letter writing campaign by our faculty. From the tone of the replies to these letters and the news media it is clear that the powers of the state govenment had no such plan. An example is Representative McDonalds letter to a local Atlanta Radio Station. Indeed, as indicated by the letter from Chancellor Propst to Senator Paul Brown of Athens, the regents and the legeslature were well coordinated on the matter of funding.

While the funding cut rumor was just that-- a rumor-- a second issue threatened the project back here in Athens. The building site contained a number of small buildings housing overflow from various Departments. The University was having trouble committing to move and house these people. Strong discussions at the March 6th meeting of the building committee convinced the Administration to hold firm on the site.

The focus on the early 1986 efforts on campus was on reducing the budget to fit into the promised state allocation. It was never clear where the $32M figure for the full building came from, but it was abundantly clear as the designed developed that we would be over budget. Inspite of the earlier cuts (Natural History Museum, Fermentation plant), more cuts and savings were needed. The records of these developing changes start with notes from the April meetings.

In late April 1986, a full set of floor plans was made available for faculty inspection and thus began a new round of faculty input. In August, the project was found to still be over budget. PERHAPS it was because of the RAPID construction timetable of 3 DAYS!

Planning continued at a good pace throughout the fall of 1986, culminating in a planned meeting of individual faculty with the design team in December and a budget slightly over $33M. However, the meetings with faculty and progress toward ground breaking were delayed well into 1987. Finally, after over 3 years of planning, the ground breaking ceremony was held in June, 1987.

After three years of construction, the Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics occupied the new Life Sciences Building in the summer of 1991. The building dedication on September 26, 1992 (see Athens Banner Herald article, an article from Columns, and a picture and caption from the Athens Observer) was delayed until completion of the teaching space and fermentation plant. This schedule for the dedication allowed Dr. Peck, who had become ill shortly after the Department moved into the building, to be present and participate in the ceremony.