Construction on a new academic research building at SUNY-ESF that will reside where the Abraham Lincoln statue currently stands will begin in at least one year.

The research building would primarily house research labs in forest biology. Illick Hall, built in 1968, is currently home to the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The facilities in Illick are becoming outdated, and the academic research building will support the lab work that is being done there, said Douglas Johnston, professor and chair of SUNY-ESF’s department of landscape architecture. Johnston also serves as a faculty representative on the advisory committee for the new building.

The new building will have three stories of labs with the underground housing mostly structural and mechanical systems — as well as a few freezers for storing specimen, Johnston said. Construction is expected to be completed in 2018, but plans to construct the building have been in the works for the past decade, roughly, he added.

“As a SUNY school, we basically have to go compete with all the other state university systems for funding,” Johnston said.

Each SUNY institution puts in a request for capital funds as well as a proposal, which gets reviewed at the state level, Johnston said. He added that the requests are prioritized and once money is available, funding is given out in order of priority.

It takes many years for requests to be supported and work their way up, Johnston said, and the project was also tied up in negotiations over land swaps, putting the construction of the building two or three years behind schedule.

After examination of other locations, it was determined that putting the building as close to Illick as possible would make the most sense in terms of proximity, Johnston said. There will also be added convenience since the two buildings are going to be connected, he said.

“After examination of multiple sites, this was determined to be the best possible site. It’s not ideal, but we’ll make it work,” Johnston said. “That’s what design does — design makes things work.”

Architects and landscape architects are currently between the conceptual and schematic design stage of the project, and construction will begin in at least one year, Johnston said. Design development will be the following step, during which decisions about materials, structural systems and mechanical systems will be made, he said. These decisions will need to be specific enough in order to provide estimates for the total project budget, he said.

Marin Braco and Darren Damone — both graduates of SUNY-ESF — are two of the landscape architects working on the project. They were originally approached to do the project in fall 2014. Their team deals with site issues including drainage, grating, planting and the building footprint, Damone said.

“ESF is a unique client in that we can work closely with their environmental forest biology department,” Braco said. “And we’re integrating a lot of the research that their professors and PhD students have done over the past few years.”

The building will have a small green roof on top of a collaborative space that will collect water and feed into a series of fens and marshes, Braco said. She added that the system for storm water management will be outside of the building on areas of the SUNY-ESF Quad.

The initial concept of the Quad was that it be a “living laboratory” and an extension of what is happening inside of the new academic building, Braco said.

Although construction is expected to be completed in 2018, certain complexities in mechanical systems may cause the construction to take a bit longer, Braco said. Construction is also tied to the academic year, she added, so it can be expected that this project will need to be constructed in the summer so the building can be up and running when students to return to campus.

The idea of the research building was presented publicly to the SUNY-ESF campus a few weeks ago. While students and faculty had questions about the building the reactions were mostly positive, Johnston said.

One of the main concerns from the public was whether the building would allow enough Quad space for students to use for recreational activities and events, he added.

Published on December 1, 2015 at 11:21 pm

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