Reveal Design for New Chemical Laboratories

The Chemistry Department yesterday revealed plans for its new laboratory building.

Ronald E. Vanelli '41, director of the Chemical Laboratories, announced that the structure would feature "more modern equipment," laboratory rooms of flexible size, complete air conditioning, and a more convenient system of administrative offices.

Modern equipment will be especially important in biochemistry, Vanelli said, with special "animal" and "cold storage" rooms. The new administrative set-up calls for a seminar room instead of a lab next to a professor's office. Vanelli spoke of this as an improvement, because "professors don't work in labs as much as they formerly did."

The new building will be three stories high, and will have a flat roof, unlike surrounding structures. Vanelli aserted that the change from a sloping roof had been necessitated by cost.

The north side of the building's interior will be devoted to rather large research labs. These have been designed to allow 200 square feet of space to each graduate student, a plan which Vanelli terms "a considerable improvement'" over crowded conditions of present limited lab space.

An off-set corridor, about two-thirds to the south side of the building, will divide the laboratories from the professors' studies, instrument rooms, and small labs.

"Hoods," well-ventilated cubicles necessary for experiments with noxious gases will be located--along with their blower motors--on the roof. The roof will also have a greenhouse.

The architectural work was done by the New York firm of Voorhees, Walker, Smith and Smith. The reason given for this selection was the firm's experience in building a number of important laboratories, starting with Bell laboratories in 1941.