Drury's $19 million Trustee Science Center complete

Drury University's new Trustee Science Center finally became a reality this fall through the generosity of 600 private donors.

The campaign to raise the $19 million cost of completing the 75,800-square-foot project at Chestnut Expressway and Washington Avenue started in spring 1999 when Drury's Board of Trustees donated $9 million.

Tristan Davies, director of university communications for Drury, reported that gifts ranging from $50 to $1 million came from faculty, staff and alumni. The fund-raising campaign was further enhanced by two grants totaling $1.75 million from the Mabee and Kresge foundations. Construction started in April 2001.

The three-story facility, which includes a greenhouse, rooftop observatory, classrooms and laboratories, was designed by HOK Engineers of St. Louis, with Oke-Thomas + Associates of Springfield serving as on-site liaison to the general contractor, Flintco Inc.

"(HOK) had the experience and expertise to meet the 21st century technology required for this project," said John Oke-Thomas. "From a design standpoint, the biggest challenge is understanding the intricacies that go into a science building to truly capture the essence of what the scientists do within that shelter.

"Our job of construction administrator was to ensure that what the architect designed is what the contractor built. Paramount in what we do is getting all the subcontractors in sequence. Since HOK is located in St. Louis, our job was to make decisions locally that ensured the continuity of the project."

Said Bart Boatright, Flintco vice president: "The building is very customized with unique angles and shape. It is a real blend of industrial and educational environment and one of the more challenging jobs we have encountered."

While the construction cost was met by private donations in just under two years, the new building is the result of a decade of planning, according to Barbara Wing, chair of the biology department, who acted as the "faculty shepherd" during the project.

Wing's job was to follow through to ensure staff expectations were met during design and construction.

"Input from faculty and staff requested that the new science center be designed with teaching in mind, as well as flexibility in the organization of classrooms, laboratories and offices," Wing said.

"Their main requirements were that the new building not be sterile, and that it would be user-friendly, with more informal study areas where people could just sit and talk. In addition, they requested that the design would not segregate departments classrooms and labs were planned to interconnect the sciences."

Drury has 1,500 traditional undergraduates, 2,500 students in continuing studies and 350 in the master's program, according to Davies. The areas of discipline with the largest number of majors are biology, chemistry, architecture, business and education, Davies said.

Wing's favorite thing about the new building is how flexible the classrooms are in their ability to be reconfigured. "The lecture halls have remarkable acoustics. And screens mounted from the ceiling allow the use of PowerPoint and whiteboards at the same time."

The new building also is the new home to one of Drury's oldest residents. Toby, a 127-year-old skeleton that came to Drury with one of the original professors in 1873, turned up recently after an absence of 60 years, Davies said.

During the science department's move from its former location in Lay Hall, Toby was located among old cartons and now resides, rather quietly, in the new Trustee Science Center.