Construction begins on building for ORFE and ITP

Construction is under way on a building that will bring the social science and engineering sectors of campus under one roof.

Located between Mudd Library and Wallace Hall and scheduled for completion in August 2008, the new structure will house the Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) department and the Center for Information Technology Policy (ITP).

Director of Engineering Communications Steven Schultz said the building will provide much-needed space for the center's growing programs. "The ITP center came into existence last year and needs space to foster interactions between faculty of different departments and visiting experts," he said, adding that these interactions will be important for "addressing issues of information technology policy."

Meanwhile, "moving ORFE will free up valuable space for important research in civil and environmental engineering, including vital research on water resources, carbon mitigation, urban issues and other areas," he said.

California-based architecture firm Frederick Fisher and Partners will oversee construction of the 46,000 square-foot facility, which will span four floors — one below ground and three above ground. The building will house offices for faculty and graduate students, as well as research studios. Conference rooms and a 65-seat lecture hall will grace the main floor, while a smaller classroom will be located in the basement.

Representatives from ORFE and the ITP Center said they were pleased to be moving.

"It's a perfect location for us," ORFE department chair Robert Vanderbei said in an email. "We will have the Wilson School, the Economics Department and the Bendheim Center [for Finance] very close to us on one side and the Computer Science building and the E-Quad close to us on the other side."

Vanderbei said that while many departments currently in the E-Quad needed additional facilities, ORFE was the easiest to relocate. "The engineering school as a whole needs more space," he said. "Since we in ORFE don't require wet labs to do our research, moving us into [a] new space proved to be the best solution."

The department will share its new building with the ITP center, which works on public policy issues related to information technology. Past projects have included studies on electronic voting, viruses and computer theft, as well as work related to new forms of media and their effect on technology.

"It'll be a great space where the participants of the center can be together and see each other every day," ITP director and computer science professor Ed Felten said. "It'll provide space for a lot of collaboration, and we'll be able to see each other in the hallways, which is important."

Felten said the new space will benefit the center in many ways — not least of which by providing it with a permanent home. "The center doesn't have centralized offices," he said. "We have offices in various departments. The ability to be together will be helpful. The location [of the new building] is also symbolically nice because it's in between the engineering school and the Wilson School."

While construction crews are present on campus, University officials said it will be a while before the new building goes up. "There's a lot of foundation work and concrete work that you won't necessarily see," Catherine Altadonna, a senior project manager for the Office of Design and Construction, said. "The excavation phase will require approximately 800 truckloads of dirt and rocks to be removed."

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Altadonna also warned that construction will be heavy at times and cautioned students who will be near the site in coming months. "Our biggest concern is the crosswalk at Shapiro Walk and Charlton Road," she said. "We are very landlocked, and a lot of the construction is vehicle traffic that has to go through Charlton. We ask everyone be extremely cautious everywhere, but especially at that location."

Vanderbei said the building will be practical and aesthetically pleasing, noting that visitors who walk through the door will encounter "a full-height atrium with skylights."

"We explained to [the firm] that the faculty needs to have offices that provide some space for quiet research, but other than that we are very happy to have a building that is modern with significant open space," he said. "I think the final design strikes the perfect balance between private space for individual research and open space for collaborative work."

Altadonna said the building's modern look will continue an architectural trend in that part of campus which began several years ago. "The Friend Center ... was really well received," she said. "This will not be the first modern building there." She added that much of the structure's design was suggested by Maria Klawe, the engineering school dean until last year.

While officials declined to provide an estimate of the project's cost, Schultz said the school is still seeking donors to defray the cost of construction. The structure has yet to be named.