Over the course of the For Humanity campaign, Yale’s physical campus has been transformed: new, iconic buildings have risen, and existing buildings have undergone extensive interior and exterior renovations. Nowhere is this growth more obvious than on Science Hill.
The new Yale Science Building opened in 2019, bringing together Yale’s major biology departments in a purpose-built facility. The building’s O.C. Marsh Lecture Hall, named through a gift by Edward P. Bass ’67, supports programmatic connections to the Yale Peabody Museum.
Connected to the Yale Science Building by a shared pavilion, which houses dining and collaboration spaces, is the iconic brick Kline Tower. Formerly a laboratory facility, the renovated tower is now home to departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences conducting data science and data-intensive research, including the departments of astronomy, mathematics, and statistics and data science. Some faculty in the Department of Physics, requiring vibration-free laboratories, are also located there. Occupying spaces on the first floor and concourse level, the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning has opened Poorvu North to support teaching excellence in STEM fields.
At the corner of Prospect and Sachem streets, a major renovation of Osborn Memorial Laboratories is growing Yale’s capacity for environmental science. The renovation will expand the building’s footprint, creating space for state-of-the-art laboratories, workspaces, and gathering places. The Prospect Street wing, to be named by a gift from Joshua Bekenstein ’80, will be dedicated to faculty, students, post-doctoral fellows, and staff of the Yale School of the Environment (YSE). Researchers will have access to expanded laboratory space, including a plant and soil preparation lab, water lab, and teaching lab, in addition to new offices, workspaces, conference rooms, and lounges. The Sachem Street wing will house FAS departments and programs including the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, and the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture, providing opportunities for collaboration with YSE faculty and students.
By far the largest effort on Science Hill is the re-envisioning of facilities for physics, materials science, and quantum science. The Upper Science Hill Development project, totaling more than 600,000 square feet, includes construction of the new Advanced Instrumentation Development Center, an addition to Wright Laboratory, a new parking structure, and other infrastructure improvements. Anchoring this effort is the massive Physical Sciences and Engineering Building, which will house high-performance quantum research laboratories and core facilities that support research across the physical sciences. Among the highlights, investments in upper Science Hill will create a new 10,000-square-foot cleanroom, 5,000 square feet for material characterization instrumentation, and 5,000 square feet of imaging suites for high-resolution electron microscopes and other techniques.
The complex will contain a new thermal utilities plant and other sustainability-focused features, supporting Yale’s goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions on campus by 2035 and zero actual carbon emissions by 2050. Infrastructure improvements also include a new Chemical Safety Building.
“The Upper Science Hill Development is among the most ambitious building projects we have undertaken in Yale’s history. In its intersectional location and capacity, the complex represents enormous potential to bring together the physical sciences and engineering like never before,” says University Provost Scott Strobel.