A $200,000 Science Hall

A $200,000 SCIENCE HALL

Which Will Give the University of Michigan the Best Laboratories in the Country.

IT WILL BE BUILT ON EAST UNIVERSITY AVENUE

And Will Contain Ten Laboratories.  Eight of Which Will Be Used by Medical Students.

It Will Probably be Placed Between the Medical Building and the Gymnasium and Work Will Commence Next Spring or Summer-It Is Now Estimated It Will Cost Not Less Than $200,000 and It Will Be the Largest Building on the Campus.

The largest and finest building on the campus will be built next year and will be the new science hall. It will be located on the east side of the campus between the medical building and the gymnasium where the tennis courts now are, and it is practically settled that it will cost at least $200,000. The site is subject to change, there being some advocates of the southeast corner of the campus at the corner of E. University and S. University aves., but the preponderance of opinion seems to be that it will be placed between the medical building and the gymnasium.

Within the walls of the new building provision will be made for 10 of the laboratories which now have cramped and insufficient quarters which are needed for other purposes. Eight of these laboratories belong properly to the medical branch of education. They are the laboratories of hygiene, bacteriology, anatomy, histology, pharmacology, pathology, physiology and experimental surgery. Part of these come from the laboratory, relieving that building of the medical smells of which complaint has been made and giving the physics and electrical departments greatly needed room. Part of them will come from the medical building, where they occupy cubby holes and stairways and rooms which can be united for needed lecture rooms and others will come from other out-of-the-way places on the campus, and find a home on what is sought to on be made one of the best laboratories of the kind in the country.

The other two laboratories will be those of botany and zoology which now occupy rooms in the south wing of the main building. These rooms will be turned into recitation rooms. In fact although these 10 laboratories will be brought together the rooms they have been drawn from will be immediately utilized by the rapidly growing work of the university.

A Daily Argus reporter visited the zoological laboratory this morning and had an ocular demonstration of the need of improved quarters.  The south wing was originally built as a student dormitory, then changed to recitation rooms and finally utilized for laboratory work.  The windows are small and have the small old fashioned panes, while the shade trees aid in keeping the rooms dark.  For research work the students should have ample light as well as good air and the ventilation of the rooms is abominable.  In fact here is nothing to carry off the foul air excepting a little hole in the chimney intended originally for a stove pipe.  In these rooms are crowded large classes of students engaged in laboratory work.  In Prof. Reighard's own room, there is scarcely elbow room.  There is no place for storing materials, much of which is kept in the attic of the building.  Other material is kept on shelves in the hallway which make it almost impossible for a man to pass without knocking a jar off the shelf and on the doors are pasted such legends as "Don't shut the door hard as it may jar off a bottle."

A plan has been drawn up as to what is wanted for the botanical and zoological part.  It provides for two wings of the science hall 50 by 120 feet in size with a connection 50 by 40 feet, making these wings look like a letter H.  These plans provide 16,500 feet of floor room for the two laboratories and 3,000 feet of hallway.  The present laboratories have 11,000 feet of floor room outside the hallways and including 1,000 feet of room now occupied for specimens in the museum.  This is a plan for the minimum space wanted as it would add only about two-thirds to the present floor space.  The plan is made to get light on all sides.

The regents at their last meeting instructed the building committee to confer with the heads of the 10 laboratories it is designed to place in the new science hall and obtain their estimates of the room they need, so that plans may be drawn to accommodate each one of them.  Until this is done, of course, the size and cost of the building cannot absolutely be determined, but it seems to be the general opinion that at least $200,000 will be spent on the new building.  Of course many of the heads of laboratories will have plans of just what they want, size and location of rooms as to light, etc.  Then comes the work of the architects to put these various ides together to make one harmonious whole.  It is thought that the plans at least in a general way, will be ready this fall and that work can be commenced on the new building next spring or summer.  In the meantime the regents will be saving the money out of their increased revenue for the purpose of erecting the building.

The new science hall will be a great addition to the university.  It will give a great impetus to scientific research not only in the laboratories which are included in it but in the other laboratories which will by the change be given more elbow room.

It should do much towards increasing the attendance upon the university because of the increased facilities for study given.