Davis Science, Wiser-Patten set for new
look by spring ’17
MURFREESBORO — The changing face of Middle Tennessee State University has
shifted back to the center of campus momentarily as renovations and upgrades
continue the boost to the university’s science education offerings.
MTSU’s older science buildings —
Wiser-Patten Science Hall, which opened in 1932 at a cost of $225,000, and
Davis Science Building, which opened in 1968 at a cost of $1.7 million — are temporarily
closed. Construction company chain-link fences surround both as they await $20
million in renovations to replace outdated equipment and repurpose space.
Campus Planning officials expect
Wiser-Patten, with 41,500 gross square feet, and Davis Science, with nearly
75,500 square feet, to reopen in January 2017.
College of Basic and Applied
Sciences Dean Bud Fischer, along with his faculty and staff, can hardly wait
for improvements to lab and research space as well as student advising.
“With these renovations,” Fischer
said, “we will now have what I consider some of the best science facilities in
the Southeast and maybe the country, offering students a wide variety of
innovative programs, research spaces and learning environments.”
Fischer is about to embark on his
fourth academic year as dean of the college, which includes some 4,600 students
(fall 2014) and 215 faculty members. A year ago, he enjoyed knowing the much
needed and long-awaited $147 million new Science Building was about to open.
The overseer of 11 departments —
including biology and chemistry in the new Science Building and the signature
concrete industry and aerospace programs — Fischer wonders aloud how any
prospective student with a penchant for the sciences can bypass MTSU.
“If you are a science student in
this state, it makes no sense not to come here,” he said. “The programs are
growing and getting better and better. The quality of education is better.”
Fischer
credits university President Sidney A. McPhee for doing “an amazing job” with
this venture, and believes the historical aspect of the Davis and Wiser-Patten buildings
will be preserved. The renovations are part of
the funding for the Science Building project.
“We’re
still keeping parts of those buildings that will remind the alumni of the
history — their time spent in those buildings,” he said, adding the front steps
and big window (in Wiser-Patten) will remain, but the offices along the sides
will make way for student space where students
“can have discussions, work together and hang out,” he said.
Physics, geosciences, anthropology, others await additional
space
Changes await a number of
departments and programs. They include:
• The Department of Physics and
Astronomy will remain in Wiser-Patten, utilizing the second and third floors
and first-floor laboratory space.
• Geosciences, which has been
housed in iconic Kirksey Old Main, will move to the second floor of Davis
Science Building.
“Moving to Davis will enable the department to
assign discipline-specific teaching and research spaces to the faculty and
students,” geosciences Chair Warner Cribb said.
• Anthropology in the College of
Liberal Arts will gain additional research lab space on the first floor of
Wiser-Patten.
“It will be a great boon to our
department,” said Shannon Hodge, an associate professor in the Department of
Sociology and Anthropology. “We will have room for all of the research
collections our archaeology faculty are working on: teaching collections; our
archaeology, human osteology and zooarchaeology comparative collections and all
of our field and laboratory equipment.”
The changes are expected to
enhance the anthropology department’s record of placing graduating students in
jobs in the profession and graduate schools, Hodge added.
• Historical archaeology and
public history will share new lab space with anthropology. Grad students in
public history will be using professor Bren Martin’s courses in museum
management and historical archaeology assistant professor Katie Sikes’ new
public history specialty, supporting ongoing historical African-American
excavations at Clover Bottom Mansion in Nashville.
• The College of Basic and Applied
Sciences forensic science program lab area will be on the first floor of
Wiser-Patten.
• The Forensic Institute for
Research and Education, or FIRE, will relocate from the Todd Building to
Wiser-Patten’s first floor. Noted forensics expert Dr. Hugh Berryman directs
FIRE.
“FIRE is totally out of space and
I have no lab at this time,” said Berryman, who has traveled to Nashville to
use the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s lab for analysis of forensic
skeletal cases. “This move will provide both. … Lab space on this campus will
greatly facilitate forensic work and student training.”
• The Center for Environmental
Education and MTSU Center for Cedar Glade Studies will be headquartered on the
first floor of Davis Science Building.
• A new College of Basic and
Applied Sciences advising suite will be featured on the first floor of Davis
Science, alleviating tight quarters they’ve experienced in Keathley University
Center for months and providing privacy for student and parent meetings.
• Lab space for engineering
technology’s third-year mechatronics engineering program is allocated for Davis
Science’s first floor.
• Renovations will include a
connector between the two buildings, creating a new central entrance, said
Jamie Brewer, one of Campus Planning’s project managers. The upgrades will
provide Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility within both buildings and
include installation of new elevators in both.
TMPartners
of Brentwood, Tennessee, is the designer for Davis Science Building.
Nashville-based Hastings Architecture Associates LLC is the designer for
Wiser-Patten and the new connector for the two buildings. Turner Construction
Co. of Brentwood is contractor for the entire project.
To learn more about the College of
Basic and Applied Sciences and other university programs of study, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/programs/index.php.
For more information about the college, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/cbas/index.php or
call 615-898-2613.
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