University of Chicago breaks ground for $200 million science building

Resources Print-quality photos: Don Michael Randel The University ceremonially broke ground on its new Interdivisional Research Building on Nov. 20. Wielding shovels are (left to right) Richard Saller, Provost; Don Michael Randel, President; Keith Moffat, Deputy Provost for Research; Donald Reaves, Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer; Thomas Rosenbaum, Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory; David Oxtoby, Dean of the Physical Sciences Division; and Dr. James Madara, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine.

The Interdivisional Research Building will bring together scientists from the biological sciences and the physical sciences to work on projects that fall in between the traditional boundaries of scientific disciplines in fields ranging from condensed-matter physics to synthetic chemistry.

The IRB will encompass 430,000 square feet on seven floors (two below ground and five above ground) at the corner of Drexel Avenue and 57th Street. The architect is Ellenzweig Associates Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. The new construction team for the IRB includes a joint venture partnership between Power Construction company and two African-American construction firms, Louis Jones Enterprises and Broadway Consolidated.

Relocating to the IRB when the building is completed in 2005 will be faculty from the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Ben May Institute for Cancer Research, the James Franck Institute and the Department of Chemistry.