Clark Hall construction adds lab space

The College broke ground in style on a new 45,000-square-foot addition to Clark Hall this past summer as U.Va. officials donned hard hats and mounted a massive yellow backhoe to turn the first piles of soil.

The handsome 68-year-old structure originally built for the law school is now home to environmental sciences and the science and engineering library. The addition, made possible by a $10 million challenge gift from Paul Tudor Jones (Economics ’76) of New York City, will primarily house environmental sciences research laboratories. These labs give the department a modern facility created expressly for its distinctive interdisciplinary research needs. After the addition is finished in 2002, renovation of the main building will begin.

“To maintain its national stature, the University of Virginia must work to maintain the strengths it has in science and engineering and to dramatically improve their scope and quality,” Shirley Menaker, associate provost, said at the ceremony. “This is our first new science building in the second millennium. We hope there will be many more in this science section of the west Grounds.”

One of the first departments to integrate physical and biological sciences into an interdisciplinary program, environmental sciences offers core courses in ecology, geosciences, hydrology and atmospheric sciences, as well as liberal arts, science writing, pre-professional and methodology classes. Regularly ranked among the top five of its peers, the department attracts a faculty of experts whose research has been recognized around the world.