$54 million building

Designers of UTPB's new $54 million Science and Technology Complex didn't forget about the snakes.

In addition to six classrooms, 41 labs, 56 offices and three seminar rooms, the 70,000-square-foot building will feature a first-floor viewing area for the biology department's prized pets - a big draw for Odessa elementary students.

UTPB President David Watts said the complex will "alter the footprint of facilities at UTPB," asking the audience at a Thursday groundbreaking to imagine its scope. The two-story structure will almost completely fill the empty space east of the library behind the school's Mesa Building.

Watts said Cooper Construction of Odessa has already "set up shop" in an overfill parking lot across from the site, and construction is expected to be complete by summer 2010.

"We're continuing to move the university forward," Watts said.

A new academic building hasn't gone up on the UTPB campus since completion of the library in 2001.

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Lois Hale said UTPB professors have always been good about incorporating cutting-edge technology in the classroom, but current facilities are cramped, and the school's science labs need a facelift.

"We continue to carve up this Mesa Building trying to make it work, but there's only so much space," she said.

She also envisions the new building as a "place to be" for students, mentioning a current lack of common areas for them to congregate in.

The complex will house chemistry and biology labs in one wing and information resources and computer science facilities in another. There will be a 200-seat sunken lecture hall on the first floor with hookups for computers at each desk, and two 100-seat lecture halls.

Watts said students will benefit from state-of-the-art labs, and the university's information resources department - the people who take care of computer support for the school - will get to move out of a more than 30-year-old space.

The physics program will be expanded, thanks in part to a new nuclear physics lab, and Watts said there's been some discussion of adding a master's in chemistry program in the future.

Mathematics and computer science chair Doug Hale said he's looking forward to having more room and new equipment for his computer science students, including a data communications lab.

But he's not too thrilled about the prospect of moving everything over in 2010. Doug Hale, who's been with the university for 35 years, has accumulated a lot of stuff over the years, not to mention the arduous task of moving computers and lab equipment from building to building.

"We don't see it, but all these cables have to end up somewhere," Hale said.

And Lois Hale said the squeamish shouldn't worry too much about seeing the biology department's snakes once the building's completed. A wooden sliding door will be installed to cover the viewing area should anyone feel to close for comfort.

"It'll be a very, very nice building," she said.

BY THE NUMBERS

UTPB's proposed Science and Technology Complex includes:

>> 70,000 square feet.

>> 6 classrooms.

>> 41 labs.

>> 56 offices.

>> 3 seminar rooms.

WHO WAS THERE?

>> State Rep. Buddy West, R-Odessa.

>> Various University of Texas of the Permian Basin officials and faculty members

>> Representatives of State House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, attended.

>> Mayor Larry Melton.