Planning Board signs off on Neuroscience site

The 248,000-square-foot complex, which was designed by Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo, will be comprised of one building for the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and one for the psychology department.

The creation of the institute was announced in 2005, and plans for construction were rolled out one year later. Back in 2007, the University expected construction to be completed by 2011. But the project has since been delayed, and the University has yet to announce when it will break ground on it.

Construction will take place on what is now Lot 20, next to Roberts Stadium.

During last Thursday’s meeting, board members also discussed the project’s implications for parking both on and off campus. Lot 20 currently has 351 parking spaces, while the lot that would be built for the new complex would only have 57.

Since sophomores are no longer allowed to park on campus, 250 extra spaces have been freed up in Lot 23 this year. Furthermore, some staff parking will be relocated from Lot 23, vacating 226 more spots, University officials said at the meeting.

The University’s $1.75 billion capital campaign — publicly launched in November 2007 — includes $300 million for the construction of a new neuroscience building. As of Sept. 30, the campaign was still $710 million short of its 2012 goal.

Still, in an interview with The Daily Princetonian this past summer, President Tilghman said the next four years “must” see the construction of the neuroscience facility.

“The only thing I was certain of when I became president … was that we had to be in neuroscience,” she said. “I came at that from a position of knowledge. I understood where the field of biology was going. I saw it was going to the brain.”

A molecular biology professor, Tilghman has pushed for the establishment, expansion and development of the University’s neuroscience program over the last eight years.

“If we were not in that field, we were going to really be at a disadvantage in the future,” she explained. “So the only thing I knew for sure is that we had to find a way to expand our position in neuroscience.”

Currently, the professors and students affiliated with the institute do not have one building specifically dedicated to their work. Tilghman said she hoped the construction of the facility would occur during her tenure, but she was unsure whether this would be possible.

“[The institute] is up and running, and that’s the great thing,” she said. “They are the best at what they do in the world ... But they’re out of space.”