January 27, 2005
Faculty, staff, students, donors and dignitaries gathered on January 27th to celebrate the “topping off” of the Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility, future home of the Bioengineering Department. “Topping off” is a tradition in the construction trades, commemorating the successful completion of the 11-story steel superstructure of the building.
More than 120 people attended the event in the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, sponsored by the the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) and the Berkeley Health Sciences Initiative. Many also enjoyed student-guided tours to view the construction site from the 10th floor of nearby Evans Hall.
After brief remarks from QB3 director Graham Fleming, faculty director of the Berkeley Health Sciences Initiative Robert Tjian, and Chancellor Birgeneau, attendees mingled, snacked, and viewed research posters by bioengineering and QB3 faculty.
In addition to staff and faculty offices for the Bioengineering Department, Stanley Hall will also be the home of QB3 staff and many affiliated faculty from a variety of departments and disciplines. The new facility is designed to encourage interdepartmental and interdisciplinary collaboration, through shared facilities and innovative arrangement of office space. Stanley will also house state-of-the-art laboratories and research space, including the Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, a tissue engineering facility, a specialized optics suite, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facilities.
The building is scheduled for completion in mid-2006.