Life Sciences groundbreaking

April 18, 2011

From left to right: Gail Phillips, former UAF Alumni Association Board president and former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives; Brian Barnes, director of UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology; UAF College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Dean Paul Layer, University of Alaska Regent Tim Brady; UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers; former Fairbanks legislator Mike Kelley; Alaska Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development Click Bishop. UAF photo by Todd Paris.

University and community leaders(left) take a turn at moving some dirt to mark the official ground breaking for the new Life Sciences Building March 30, 2011 on UAF's West Ridge.

When completed, the facility will include 101,000 square feet of teaching and research space. The Life Sciences building is the final in a trio of interconnected buildings, including the State of Alaska Public Health Laboratory and the Biological Research and Diagnostics Facility, that support life science research and teaching on the UAF campus. It is the first new academic laboratory facility at UAF since 1994. The building is slated for completion in early 2014. The $108.6 million project includes a major utilities upgrade to support the building and the replacement of the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences greenhouse.

Construction updates including a live-streaming webcam are available online.