The Brigham Young University Board of Trustees has approved the construction of a new Life Sciences Building, to be built on the south end of campus.
The Life Sciences Building will include 265,000 square feet of teaching and research space for the College of Life Sciences and will be constructed on the hillside directly south of the John A. Widtsoe Building.
“The new Life Sciences Building will serve as a gateway for the south end of the BYU campus,” said Brian Evans, Chief Financial Officer and Administrative Vice President at BYU. “It will be a welcoming and inviting building and will include a center corridor that will lead students directly up the hill to campus.”
The Life Sciences Building will have a total of five levels, including a three-level, 250-stall parking structure that will be integrated into the building. The building will be built at the current location of the Benjamin Cluff Building, which will be razed prior to construction.
The construction process will begin immediately and will be ongoing for approximately three years. The structure is estimated to be completed and occupied toward the end of 2014.
When finished, the building will include 16 teaching labs, three auditoriums, four conference rooms and more than 70 academic offices. All faculty and labs currently located in the Cluff and Widtsoe buildings will be housed in the new facility.
Following the completion of the new Life Sciences Building, the Widtsoe building will also be razed.
Okland Construction has been selected as the general contractor for the project.
In relation to the Life Sciences, the BYU Board of Trustees has also approved a 30,000-square-foot addition to the Monte L. Bean Life Sciences Museum. The addition will be built on the east side of the current museum structure and will include as its centerpiece an exhibit of birds and bird art from the collection of President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
