Science Commons

It's a very pretty and new design for a building. It has multiple layers and has large glass windows so there is lots of natural light. Its science labs are very new. It's a nice building with good study spaces. It has elevators to make it accessible. It has a sandwich shop too.

Beautiful building! The 280 million dollar project was designed to bring state of the art building was designed to bring the different science departments into one "shared space." However, I think the math department is staying in uHall, how sad.

This building also has dedicated spaces for science outreach through Destination Exploration, promoting STEM and Leadership in youth. They offer a variety of programs including clubs and summer camps.

The building adds more large lecture halls, which is really nice - first year students will have opportunities to go beyond PE 250. However, it didn't add smaller classrooms, so most high level classes will still be taught in University Hall.

There is quite a bit of space to just hang out or study. Worth noting, there are more comfortable chairs and couches in the new building - something that I found sorely lacking prior, though I haven't napped on one yet.

Something I found surprising - it is a very large building, and initially walking though it took over an hour, walking through all the hallways and Labs. Now that everything has been moved in, much of the building requires key card access, and you can now swiftly traverse the building in 10 mins (ignoring all the department hallways). Still quite sizable, and understandable with some of the dangerous or secretive research being conducted. I also think it lets departments feel more connected, having their own spaces and research areas in stead of being cramped in small offices in one long hallway.

Finally I think it is worth mentioning some of the highlights of this new building. First, it is mostly glass. This is beautiful from the outside, and makes a huge difference for lighting on the inside. The windows are also part of a green initiative to make the building more sustainable. Second, there is a huge new meeting space, slightly larger than the attrium, which is designed for presentations, and has been used for a variety of events, including socials and Big Bang: the grand opening ceremony for the building (they exploded a few hydrogen balloons!). Finally, they do a wonderful job of showcasing chemistry. On the 6th floor we have our NMR spectroscopy machines in plain sight & more impressively, on the 8th floor right outside our chemistry department, we have a real periodic table. Not just geeking out about this, it's actually really cool to get a chance to see many of the different elements (even rare ones) and some of their uses. A highlight of the new building, and a project let by chemistry professors. Makes me proud to be a student and learn here every day. Go horns!