Re: [Phys-L] new physics lab construction
I lived through this. At the time I was Dean and the only Physics person.
The architects swore up and down they had designed labs before and knew
all the nuances.
The end result of what the architects gave us is a train wreck in many
respects.
I made certain to specify every detail in the physics lab, from bench
height, to cabinet space to type of doors on the cabinets, to the type of
chairs I wanted (NO WHEELS). The physics lab is the only one that 'works'
the way it is supposed to.
1. The hoods specified in Bio. and the Bio. prep room were not Biological
hoods -- just Chem. hoods. So, they are inappropriate for culturing
bacteria or doing any Biology work. The Chem. hoods were not connected
correctly, creating a mold problem!
2. The cabinets in the Chemistry lab were not VENTED! The lab storage
area was too small and quickly outgrown -- we are having to store things on
top of cabinets. The lab storage room was not sufficiently vented, nor was
there venting for the extra chemical storage cabinets (even though we
showed them what was to be moved in and what was to be added for storage.
The shelving in the room was originally not to be sturdy enough nor allow
flow through venting.
I could go on and on. In short, don't assume the architects know crap. Go
visit a few labs nearby, think hard about how you work and organize things,
remember your undergrad. lab and grad. lab spaces, study areas, etc..
Then, take a LOT of time to go and plan out your space(s). Tape out the
area(s) on a floor -- open spaces look bigger than they are when you have
to put benches, etc. in them and get students to mill around them.
Remember lighting and to be sure you can turn off correct lights if you
have a projection system in the room. Last, I specified NO WINDOWS in the
lab room so that I could get it dark enough for Optics labs. Turns out
that works very well; and ,it also makes my lab the safest in the building
now when we did the security audit preparing for a possible 'lockdown' --
for a possible shooter, etc.
Peter Schoch
On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 10:19 PM, Larry Smith <larry.smith@snow.edu> wrote:
> We are in the process of “programming” for a new science building at our
> 2-yr junior college. I meet with the architects next week to discuss
> physics department programming. If anyone has recent experience building
> for physics labs, please share your advice (this could be off-list to me
> directly at larry.smith@snow.edu to keep list traffic down).
>
> We are considering constructing spaces that could be used as lecture
> classrooms some hours of the day and labs at other hours. Does that work?
>
> Are there web sites with suggestions about what to put in a new college
> physical science building, both in terms of labs and in terms of displays
> and study areas? Duckduckgo.com didn’t turn up much.
>
> Thanks,
> Larry
> Larry.Smith@snow.edu
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