Ralph and others:
On of the earliest unique laboratory buildings I recall visiting, indeed, I attended the Open House dedication in 1964 was the Calvin Laboratory at UC Berkeley. It was constructed as a round building. Calvin received the Nobel prize for his research on photosynthesis using C14 . Ernest Lawrence, who was also a Nobel Laureate, had discovered C14 using his cyclotron at Berkeley and encouraged Calvin to do something useful with it. The old Rad Lab at Berkeley where Calvin did his initial work was a sight to behold. After Calvin received the Nobel prize multiple sources came together to fund the construction of the new Calvin lab. He was way ahead of his time and wanted a facility that would encourage collaboration, hence, the round building. You
can find photos of it with a little time googling. The interior is not really open space but did encourage interactions.
It might be useful to contact some one at UC-Berkeley and learn the current status and use of the Round Calvin Laboratory.
Regards,
Roger
Roger O. McClellan
Advisor, Toxicology and Risk Analysis
From: Ralph B. Stuart
<rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**CORNELL.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 5:27 AM
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Open plan research buildings
I noticed while scanning this morning's C&EN headlines this notice:
Are you in favor of the trend for open plan research buildings? Do they make for more collaboration and better science? Or are they noisy, distracting and stressful places to work? At C&EN we'd like to hear your opinion for an upcoming article. If you would like to participate please email Senior Editor Alex Scott at
a_scott**At_Symbol_Here**acs.org.
I thought that DCHAS members might have some interesting thoughts on the matter and want to contact Alex...
- Ralph
Ralph Stuart CIH
Chemical Hygiene Officer
Department of Environmental Health and Safety
Cornell University
rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**cornell.edu 