Photo courtesy of Lord, Aeck & Sargent, Photography by www.walterelliott.com

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The $12.5-million Munroe Science Center comprises classroom, teaching, and research laboratory, and office space in two wings on two floors, with public gathering space in the center area between the wings. The third floor includes a rooftop greenhouse and astronomy platform as well as an enclosed mechanical penthouse. The building houses the biology and chemistry departments, and part of the psychology department.

The Munroe Science Center is a bright, state-of-the-art space that does justice to the excellence of the science department’s curricula. Faculty and students are especially excited about the 11 new teaching labs, which combine space for both traditional lectures and hands-on lab exercises, and with several new features—a built-in deionized water system, an environmental room, a greenhouse, and an astronomy deck.

The design of an extremely efficient mechanical system allowed Wesleyan to build a large, Georgian-style building on a limited budget. Clad in brick and cast stone, the building’s exterior is rich in texture, featuring both Flemish bond and basket weave brickwork patterns. Three arches grace the entrance on the south façade, which faces the campus quad, in keeping with the other buildings that face the quad. Six Doric-style columns ornament the front entrance on the north façade, which faces the main road leading into the city of Macon.

Wesleyan’s original master plan called for a chapel that would become the campus centerpiece.  The Munroe Science Center is now sited in the spot—in between two other buildings (Tate Hall and Taylor Hall)—originally intended for the chapel, which was never built. The new science building has a larger footprint and longer façade than the proposed chapel. In keeping with the master plan’s intent to provide a dynamic campus centerpiece while ensuring that the individual characteristics of Tate and Taylor halls is retained, the design took on two particular considerations.

The first consideration was the centralization of the roof element across the middle body of the building, so that one’s eye is drawn to the porch and columns on the north façade, and to the center of the building and site. This was reinforced by placing two vertical brick chimneys on the roof to conceal the laboratory fume hood exhaust. The second consideration was to hold the roof back at the end portions of the building to allow the eye to rest, as well as break up the overall length of the façade. This gives some implied breathing room between the roof lines of the new building and the adjacent buildings, and it enhances and retains the individual identities of both Tate and Taylor halls. Vertical stair towers provide the bookends to the new building, and bring one’s eye back to the front of the site.

The Munroe Science Center and site are resource-sensitive, using locally crafted brick known as Wesleyan Brick as well as local landscape plantings. The design and construction team limited the amount of cut and fill of the earth in siting the building. Inside, the building features energy- and water-saving devices such as occupancy sensors and waterless urinals.

Content for this profile provided by Lord, Aeck & Sargent.

Project Information
Building Owner:		Wesleyan College
Building Location:		Macon, Georgia UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Science teaching
Project Delivery Method:		Construction Management
Project Timeline		Aug 2004 Planning Start Jan 2005 Design Start Aug 2006 Construction Start Oct 2007 Completion Last known status: Completed
Project Cost:		$12,500,000
Construction Cost:		$10,400,000
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$251
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Astronomy Biology Chemistry Education Greenhouse Laboratory: Research Laboratory: Teaching
Total GSF:		42,000
Project Team
Architect - Associate		Dunwody/Beeland Architects
Architect of Record		Lord, Aeck & Sargent
Construction Management		The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Consultant - Audio Visual		Waveguide Consulting
Engineer - MEP		Nottingham Brook & Pennington
Engineer - Civil		Carter & Sloope Inc.
Engineer - Structural		Pi-Tech Inc.
Landscape Architect		Wimberly Treadwell
Supplier - Building Automation Controls		Johnson Controls Inc.
Supplier - Casework		Thermo Fisher Scientific
Supplier - Environmental Enclosures		Climatic Testing Systems
Supplier - Fume Hoods		Thermo Fisher Scientific
Supplier - Greenhouse		Florian Solar Products LLC
Supplier - Sterilizers		STERIS Corporation
Supplier - Water Purification		U.S. Filter
Profile Created 06/17/2009
Last Updated 03/12/2009
About the Reported Cost Figures The cost figures reported are supplied by the firms that submitted these projects for publication, which in most cases are the designers or builders. Whereas these sources are intimately familiar with their projects, they may not be fully aware of the owners' finally-realized and recorded costs. In some cases, costs are truly and completely accounted for, and in others they represent a near approximation of the final costs. Costs have not been adjusted for year of construction, nor has any attempt been made to make regional cost adjustments. Further, costs are not comparable on any kind of detailed standard costing model. Hence, it is possible for the cost of one building to include a steam boiler, while the cost of a comparable building might not include the boiler, if steam is being supplied from an already existing campus grid. Or, in another case, a building might include excess boiler capacity to supply steam to another building. Some submittals include fees or unusual site improvements as part of the construction costs, which others do not.

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