The University of Arizona is finishing up a $42 million renovation of its 86-year-old chemistry building on the Tucson campus.
The Arizona Daily Star reports that the updated 78,000-square-foot complex is scheduled to open next semester to students and faculty.
The facility will have nine new classroom spaces equipped with technology designed to promote active learning. It also will house new research spaces, faculty and administrative offices, three learning studios where faculty can hold online and hybrid lectures, and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility.
In the renovated and expanded chemistry building, the lecture halls have tables instead of individual seats, which will enable students to work in groups and engage in more hands-on lessons.
The chemistry building had been expanded in the 1940s and 1960s, but by the 2010s most of its research spaces, with the exception of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility, were so outdated they weren’t safe to use.
The 1936 portion and part of the 1940s addition have been preserved, but the other portion of the 1940s addition and the 1960s addition have been demolished and a new addition called The Commons has been erected.
The Commons is joined to the old building via a lobby and is where the majority of the collaborative learning spaces are.
