For more information, contact Susan Griffith, 216-368-1004 or sbg4@po.cwru.edu.

Posted 10-15-01

Pytte Science Center dedicated

CLEVELAND -- The CWRU community and friends of the College of Arts and Sciences gathered Friday, October 5 to dedicate the award-winning Agnar Pytte Center for Science Education and Research on Adelbert Road.

The building is named after former CWRU President Agnar Pytte. He and his wife Anah returned to campus to participate in the event.

The science center was part of $325 million in new and renovated facilities begun during Pytte's 12 years as president. The naming of the building came as one of the University's parting recognitions at his retirement in 1999.

The dedication culminates a four-phase, $33-million project, designed by Collins Gordon Bostwick Architects and constructed by the Krill Company.

"The project encompassed building new facilities and improving the existing science structures to create state-of-the-art classrooms, research laboratories, and faculty offices for the Departments of Biology and Chemistry," said Samuel Savin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

"I am very enthusiastic about the finished complex we have created," said Kenneth Kutina, vice president for institutional planning. He worked closely with faculty and staff members Joseph Koonce, Charles Rozek, and Norman Rushforth from biology and John Hays, Anthony Pearson, Lawrence Sayre, and the late Louis Martino from chemistry for input on the project.

Planning for the new science center started in 1993. In 1996, the University received at $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation and a $1 million grant from the Ohio Board of Regents to kick off the project. Construction began the following year.

Shortly after the announcement of the project, it received a major boost when the 1525 Foundation and the Second Foundation issued a $12 million challenge grant to spur others to join in the project. The College of Arts and Sciences received approximately 30 leadership gifts of more than $100,000 and almost 200 other gifts.

The architectural firm of Collins Gordon Bostwick Architects had the tasks of melding two centuries of architectural styles from the Millis Science Hall, built in 1963, with the stone Romanesque-style Biology Building, designed by Charles Schweinfurth in 1896.

They sought to preserve the past and unite it with the 21st century with the new three-story glass and steel Frank Hovorka Atrium that provides an informal gathering place, while linking the existing buildings with the new Anne and Roger Clapp Hall. The new Clapp Hall addition provides faculty offices, classrooms, and a new 140-seat lecture hall.

The entire science center complex encompasses 204,000 square feet.

The unique design has been recognized with a Silver Citation in school designs from AS&U magazine, an award from the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and as one of the three finalists in the Northern Ohio Live Awards of Achievement for architectural design -- and selected from more than a dozen designs that were completed in the past year.

Architect Neall Distad said that one of the biggest challenges of the project was undertaking a construction project in a fully occupied building without shutting it down. He said this meant designing a master plan that called for "musical labs" and shifting classrooms during construction.

The architects also faced reversing the building fronts from the west to the east. This gave the science center a new entrance and presence along Adelbert Road that, according to Distad, redefines the boundaries between CWRU and University Hospitals.

The work began while John Bassett was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He envisioned the new and revitalized spaces for the students and faculty members of the two most popular majors in Arts and Sciences.

According to Kutina, the project raised over $23 million from outside sources and was completed on time and budget.

The new configuration will enable the sciences to increase its faculty size by 24 next year, when the project reaches its completion as the construction manager finishes the remaining labs for newly hired faculty members who are expected to arrive next semester.

The Agnar Pytte Science Center will form one of the cornerstones of a science campus for the College of Arts and Sciences that includes the Rockefeller Building, which also has been reconfigured for state-of-the-arts physics, and the Morley Building, the planned site for the new home for the Department of Geology.