Rector Science Complex Preview Reception and Dinner

On Friday, May 2, 2008, members of the Dickinson College community gathered to glimpse the future at the Rector Science Complex Preview Reception and Dinner. About 150 faculty, students, trustees, and staff gathered to tour the nearly completed Stuart Hall, James Hall and the soaring atrium that joins them.

Traveling in small groups, guests were guided through classrooms, laboratories and the Stafford Auditorium by science faculty and the building’s architects, construction professionals and engineers. Tours meant to last 10 minutes stretched to 30 minutes and longer to enable the groups to ask questions and learn more about what the new facility will offer to students and faculty working in the sciences.

During the dinner following the tours, alumna and trustee Sylvia Smith ’73 discussed the contribution the building makes to the campus not only as a center for scientific learning but also as a stunning work of architecture:

Many discuss the distinction between building and architecture. Buildings meet their functional needs but do not register in the viewer’s memory. Architecture also accommodates functional requirements, but the qualities of light, materiality, proportion, form, and space are combined in such a way that the viewer’s experience is enriched. To quote the most significant architect of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, “Art enters in.”

Dickinson’s new Rector Science Complex is architecture. The structure’s function as a place of scientific exploration and learning is enhanced by its artful form and organization. Spaces are varied and modulated. Gatherings and dialogue in the glorious double-height internal courtyard or in the more intimate spaces at its perimeter and outside the faculty offices will be the natural result. Movement through the structure is punctuated by natural light. It animates the stairs and defines the bridge that links the two building wings. From the corridors, you are aware of the light-filled and spacious labs framed by tall, glazed doors. The rich and refined interior and exterior material palette give the complex scale and warmth.

Good architecture must be sustainable. Passive solar measures such as the sun-screen on the south elevations and sophisticated systems such as the heat-recovery wheel reduce the structure’s environmental impact. These attributes and more combine to form a distinctive, forward-looking architecture whose intangible and poetic qualities will affect many for years to come.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Cindy Samet '82 also shared the science faculty’s perspective on the Rector Complex during the dinner:

I came across a book that architect Dusty Rhoads had given us that was filled with the work of ZGF. The book is titled Between Science and Art. As I read the forward, written by Robert Frasca, the F in ZGF, two sentences resonated and stuck in my mind that entire day: “By design, potentially divergent elements of a community can find common ground. So much of what we do draws its inspiration from the surroundings and the people who will use it.”

Now these are some words I can work with: Common ground. Inspiration. Surroundings. People. That was it—the perfect way to describe what this new facility adds to our lives, our work. How biology, chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, bioinformatics, neuroscience, nanoscience and psychology would all be united in a space where the scientific process would be tangible and visible through open space or glass panes that would provide vistas—yes, vistas in a science building! Science is a human endeavor.

Scientists all over—at government labs, universities, colleges, medical research centers—work alone and must overcome barriers to collaborate and share their energy. Most scientists will never work in a facility like the one we are about to move into. It is phenomenal. I’ve never seen anything like it. A classroom and introductory chemistry lab separated only by a glass wall, allowing the classroom and laboratory to safely meld into one. An 80-person classroom that has the closeness and intimacy of a small seminar room. Study spaces that place students in close proximity to fellow students and professors engaged in teaching and research, where interaction spaces and spacious laboratories allow teaching and research to meander and mingle. Common ground. Inspiration. Surroundings. People. Science is a human endeavor.

There is a connectedness that renders our individual classrooms and laboratories much larger than the sum of the parts. It is a people building.