Baylor To Break Ground May 17 On $103 Million Science Building

by Lori Scott Fogleman

Baylor University will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking on the largest building project ever in the university's 157-year history -- the $103 million Baylor Sciences Building -- at 2:30 p.m. Friday, May 17, on the intramural fields adjacent to the McLane Student Life Center on the Baylor campus.
To show the vast scale of the four-story, 500,000-square-foot building, an outline of the project will be painted on the field in gold. In the event of rain, the ceremony and reception will still be held under a large tent set up on the construction site.
The Baylor Sciences Building represents one of the key academic imperatives of Baylor 2012, the university's recently adopted 10-year vision, which calls for Baylor to enter the top tier of American universities over the next decade while reaffirming and strengthening its distinctive Christian mission. The new building will consolidate departments currently located in Sid Richardson and Marrs McLean science buildings, which were built 30 years ago when Baylor was half its present size. The BECK Group of Dallas has been selected as the general contractor, and work should begin in June with completion slated by fall 2004.
Among those participating in the ceremony will be Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr., who has the honor of breaking ground with a bulldozer; Dale P. Jones, chair of the Baylor regent facility and technology committee and member of the Baylor Health Care System board; Dr. Benjamin A. Pierce, professor of biology and associate dean for sciences; Dr. Marianna A. Busch, professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry; Gabriel C. Calzada, a 1998 Baylor graduate and student at Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Donald D. Schmeltekopf, provost and vice president for academic affairs; and Dr. Wallace L. Daniel, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and The Ralph L. and Bessie Mae Lynn Professor of History.
The chairs of Baylor's science departments and the student representatives and faculty advisers for six Baylor science honor societies also will take part in the groundbreaking.
For more information about the groundbreaking, contact Lori Scott Fogleman, director of media relations, at (254) 710-6275 or mobile (254) 744-4426.