PASADENA, Calif. — The California Institute of Technology will dedicate the new Broad Center for the Biological Sciences at 4 p.m, September 10, on Wilson Avenue, just south of Del Mar, at Caltech in Pasadena.
The building, which was recently completed and is just now being populated, will be the site of 13 key research groups that will help the Institute maintain the extraordinary pace of discovery and innovation for which it is renowned. The center's critical areas of investigation will be magnetic imaging, computational molecular biology, and investigation of the biological nature of consciousness, emotion, and perception.
Principal funding for the building was provided by a gift of more than $20 million from Edythe and Eli Broad. Eli Broad is chairman of AIG SunAmerica, and has been a Caltech trustee since 1993.
"Biotechnology, more than any other scientific discipline, has the greatest potential to significantly improve the human condition," said Broad. "Just as the 20th century was a period of major advancement for chemistry and physics, the 21st century will be the golden age for biology. For that reason, my family and I are proud to support Caltech's scientists and their groundbreaking work that will no doubt take place in this building."
The Broads' gift was part of a $100 million fund-raising effort for the biological sciences at Caltech.
Speakers at the opening include David Baltimore, president of Caltech; Benjamin Rosen, chairman of the Caltech Board of Trustees; Allen Rudolph, principal with Rudolph and Sletten, the construction company; Elliot Meyerowitz, chair of the Division of Biology and a biology professor; and Broad.
"The Broad Center adds a distinguished architectural achievement to Caltech's already beautiful campus," said Baltimore. "It is a testament to the generosity of many friends of Caltech, led by Eli and Edye Broad, and to the genius of James Freed, its design architect. Most importantly, it's a highly functional building, providing a framework for advances in the biological sciences in the 21st century."
The building's lead designer was James Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, a firm known for its work on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art in Athens; the Miho Museum of Shiga, Japan; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland; the Grand Louvre in Paris; and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.
The Broad Center is on the northwest corner of campus, near the Beckman Institute. Measuring 120,000 square feet, with three floors above ground and two below, the building includes laboratories and offices for 13 research teams, as well as conference rooms, compact libraries, an auditorium, and a seminar room. The latest modular design elements have been used to allow the greatest flexibility for rearranging labs and offices to accommodate future needs at minimum cost. The square modern design is intended to maximize scientific interaction within.
The building contains several major research facilities including an imaging center and a biomolecular structures laboratory.
A mall covered by red Chinese pistache trees lines one side of the building. The building's south-facing external wall, which is adjacent to the Beckman Institute, is travertine, while the other exterior walls are covered by embossed stainless steel.
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