Eastern Kentucky University students, professors, and administrators along with local and state government leaders today officially cut the ribbon on the state’s largest science building on any Kentucky campus.
That distinction comes with the opening of phase two of the EKU Science Building. Senior Geology Major Laura Kelley says the technology found in the complex, changes field work, such as monitoring ground water.
“With the geo-spatial analysis lab, we can go out and map and area and then come back and put it on the computer almost instantaneously now instead of having to wait for a class to be done in the lab,” said Kelley.
Phase two of the 158,000 square foot building carried a state funded price tag of just over $66 million.
In addition to all the class space and technology, the 158,000 square foot section contains sizeable sustainability features. Malcolm Frisbie chairs biological sciences.
“A building that is this big and this technologically advanced uses a lot of energy. It’s very important that the architects help us think all through the building about things we could do to minimize the footprint of this building in an environmental standpoint,” noted Frisbie.
In his remarks during the grand opening, EKU Board of Regents Chair Craig Turner said the ceremony may have marked the end of this type of project fully financed with state dollars.
From this point forward, Turner believes public-private funding may be the only way to see such a facility built.
