Moving crews busy at new Biochemistry Building

The first wave of more than 300 faculty and staff settled into new digs this week in UW–Madison’s almost-completed, $35.6 million Biochemistry Building, which is slated for an October grand opening.

The move of administrative offices and a few labs begins what will be a room-by-room transfer over the next two months. Department officials expect the building to be fully staffed and operational before the formal dedication scheduled for October 15.

Although the move is a short one — the new building is literally in the shadow of the historic biochemistry building on Henry Mall — it is eagerly awaited by the department. “What really has people excited are the new amenities in the building,” says Michael Cox, a biochemistry professor and coordinator of the project. “It’s going to be an easier, more enjoyable place to work.”

With nearly 200,000 square feet of space, the building will provide expanded quarters for the department’s library, animal housing facility, plant growth chamber and its magnetic resonance laboratory, a unique national resource for scientists.

Cox adds that the atrium design of the building will create a warm and social atmosphere for staff. All of the offices and labs are built around the two atriums, which span five floors and are topped with skylights.

“The atriums are sort of collision zones for employees and they will really tie the department together,” he says.

As one of UW–Madison’s five largest capital projects of the decade, the building’s unique financing links the department’s accomplished past with its future. Cox says roughly 60 percent of the funding comes from royalties of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

It was biochemist Harry Steenbock’s Vitamin D-based research that essentially gave rise to WARF in 1925, and since then the department has been the single largest producer on campus of patent royalties from laboratory discoveries.

Cox says the building is complete except for some laboratory features that need to be installed. Plans are still developing on the future use of the original biochemistry building, which was built in 1912 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Flad and Associates and Affiliated Engineers handled the design and engineering work. Construction, which began in April 1996, was led by J.P. Cullen and Sons. Subcontractors included Westphal and Company, Ahern Plumbing and Downey Inc.