Biological Research Building
Construction Began: August 24, 1961
Occupied: March 1, 1963
Dedicated: October 25, 1963
Architects: Harry A. & F. Curtis King
Location: Annexed to Sims Hall (southeast corner of the main campus quadrangle) on the corner of College Place and Euclid Avenue
Estimated (Actual) Cost: $765,000 ($1,050,923)
Contractor: Consulting Mechanical Engineers: Robson and Woese, Inc.; Consulting Structural Engineers: Eckerlin and Klepper; Landscaping: D.W. Winkelman Co., Inc.
Notes:
This four-story, 31,000 square foot modern red-brick building was the twenty-sixth to be completed since the end of the Second World War. It houses some fifty faculty and graduate students of the Department of Bacteriology and Botany. The Biological Research Building was the first structure on campus to be devoted entirely to research, and is completely air-conditioned and climate controlled. It replaced the prefabricated buildings in Collendale which had previously been the headquarters for the Department of Bacteriology and Botany. Major contributors toward the building's construction included the National Institutes of Health, which donated $374,301.
The Biological Research Building's dedication featured lectures by Paul R. Kurkholder (Lamont Geological Oberservatories, Columbia University), "Biology and the Future of Man," Charles R. DeCarlo (Director of Education, International Business Machines), "Perspectives in Computing Sciences," and James H. Jensen (President, Oregon State University), "Biology Today and Tomorrow."
The Biological Research Building's laboratories have been used in research projects regarding the nutrition and physiology of bacteria and molds, new applications of antibiotics, and the effects of radiation on microorganisms.
Four additional stories, designed by the architectural firm of King and King, were added to the Biological Research laboratories in 1966. A $825,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health helped to finance this addition, which included a greenhouse measuring 24' x 41', on the roof of the building.
