Inside the Frank Hovorka Atrium.

Another View Inside the Atrium.

Photographs © 2001 Barney Taxel.
All Rights Reserved.

The Agnar Pytte Center for Science Education and Research - named in honor of CWRU President Agnar Pytte upon his retirement from the University in 1999 - is the culmination of a four-phase project that began in 1996. The project's mission, now complete, was to build new facilities and improve existing science structures to create state-of-the-art classrooms, research laboratories, and faculty offices for biology and chemistry. These are two of the most popular undergraduate majors in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the research conducted by their faculty and graduate students competes annually for significant external support.

Collins Gordon Bostwick Architects, Inc., located in Cleveland, Ohio, designed the plans for the $26 million project that encompasses 204,000 square feet of research and teaching facilities. The Center melds the historic 1897 Romanesque-style sandstone Biology Building with the new four-story Anne and M. Roger Clapp Hall and the existing Millis Hall and Schmitt Auditorium. Linking these structures and giving a new important presence to the Agnar Pytte Science Center is the four-story glass Frank Hovorka Atrium.

The CWRU Board of Trustees decided to name the new complex the Agnar Pytte Center for Science Education and Research. Pytte was also elected to the position of president emeritus, effective July 1, 2000.