INNOVATION CAMPUS GROUNDBREAKING TO BE HELD JUNE 5
Innovation Campus, Utah State University‚s research park, will break ground for two new buildings and showcase its master plan on Thursday, June 5, at 11:30 a.m. at the southeast corner of Innovation Campus on 1650 North 600 East.
The groundbreaking ceremony will mark the beginning of construction on Innovation Campus‚ Grand East/West Avenue and two buildings, the Utah State University Research Foundation Administration Building and the Research Foundation Molecular Systems Facility.
The master plan presentation will showcase Innovation Campus‚ past, present and future and will outline the planned growth of Innovation Campus over the next 40 years.
Brent Miller, Utah State vice president for research, will conduct the event, and special guest speakers include Utah State President Kermit L. Hall; Charles K. Watt, USU Research Foundation board of trustees chair; Richardo Dumont of Sasaki & Associates, the firm that created the campus master plan; and Glenn J. Mecham of Senator Robert Bennett‚s office.
The administration building and molecular systems facility will be constructed at the same time by one contractor. The administration building, which is two stories tall and 26,000 square feet, will house the administrative functions of the USU Research Foundation. It is one of the last two buildings to be constructed in the “first phase” of Innovation Campus‚ build out, which includes the area between 400 East and 600 East and between 1650 North and 1800 North. The last plot in that area will be used for the expansion of the calibration program or other programs related to the Space Dynamics Laboratory. The administration building is expected to be completed in summer 2004.
The molecular systems facility will be completed in 16 months and will house the National Center for the Design of Molecular Function, which focuses on applications of biotechnology as it impacts the environment and the resolution of biomedical problems. The two-story building will have 22,975 square feet of laboratory and office space.
The molecular building will be the first building located across 600 East in the “second phase” of growth. That block, currently occupied by the USU College of Agriculture and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, was obtained by Innovation Campus in exchange for more than 500 acres of land at Cache Junction. As Innovation Campus expands, the College of Agriculture and the UAES will gradually relocate their facilities to the Caine Dairy and South Farm and use the Cache Junction land for farming production. The historical Small Grains Research Plot, the UAES Greenville Farm, the Skaggs Lab, the USDA Bee Lab and the ASTE building and greenhouses will all remain at their current locations.
The two new buildings will anchor the Grand East/West Avenue and will run the length of the completed Innovation Campus. It will be a tree-lined street with a stream running down the center.