McKay Opens in June; Labs Near Completion

The Gordon McKay Laboratory of Applied Science, newest building in the University, is finished except for certain seiner internal adjustments. Albert Heartlein, Associate Dean of the Division of Applied Science, made the announcement yesterday.

Remaining work includes the completion of wiring, plumbing, heating, and certain interior partitioning.

The million-dollar reinforced concrete and glade structure, located on Oxford St. across from the Mullinckrodt Chemical Laboratories, will be devoted entirely to graduate research.

The laboratory will not go into use until the spring semester, when facilities for research in solid-state physics and electron physics will be moved into the third floor from neighboring buildings.

Funds for the construction of the building came from interest on a 17 million dollar bequest left to the University in 1902 by Gordon McKay, an engineer-turned-inventor who accumulated a tremendous fortune from the royalties on a shoo-making machine he designed.

In keeping with the terms of the bequest, great emphasis will be given to mechanical engineering, particularly to relatively undeveloped phases of the field, such as problems of turbulent flow and the nature of matter.

The main feature of the laboratory is the extreme flexibility of its internal design. Whole walls and sections of floor can be easily moved to accommodate new apparatus.

Formal dedication of the building will not take place until June and will be scheduled as part of the graduate Commencement exercises.

The Boston architectural firm of Coolidge, Shepley, and Abbot designed the building.