Aside from the dust on the stairs and boxes piled high in the first-floor lab, the new chemistry building on Buckman Drive is nearly complete.
Following almost a decade of planning and two delays in the past year, Joseph Hernandez Hall is set to open April 21. The building was constructed to help with the increasing demand for chemistry classes, said Jeanna Mastrodicasa, the associate vice president for operations with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The total cost to complete the building is about $66.5 million, said Frank Javaheri, the senior project manager. Construction alone cost $52.5 million. The rest of the money went toward other costs, including furniture, decorations and utilities.
Midway through Fall, workers on the 110,000 square-foot hall found a manufacturing error in lab desks. Before that, there were problems with a water leak on an upper level and too few people available to work on the building, Javaheri said.
Since 2008, more than 500 people have worked on the 32 divisions to create the new building in a plot that previously served as a parking lot at the corner of Buckman Drive and West University Avenue, he said. During the first year, the team planned the building and installed infrastructure, including water pipes and electrical lines.
But the project halted in 2010 after the underground wiring was in place, he said. UF decided to go ahead and begin the on-ground construction in 2014, adding $24 million to the building’s original funds.
The state provided the remaining money to the building’s budget, Javaheri said.
By the end of Spring, the building’s first-floor general chemistry lab will house about 250 students, while the second-floor organic chemistry lab will hold about 120, Javaheri said. Upper levels, which will have restricted access for graduate students conducting research, can fit about 60 students.
Mastrodicasa said there has been a huge demand in recent years for class space from students in all majors who need to take chemistry.
“It’s not just that we needed something new and shiny,” she said.
Because the hall is focused on providing labs and classrooms for students, there are hardly any administrative offices in the building, said Margaret Fields, the associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
“This building is entirely student-centered,” she said.
Though Javaheri has been working on the project since 2008, he isn’t sad to see it completed — even now, he has begun looking into his next project on Norman Hall’s renovations.
“Hopefully when I get this building done, the building’s going to shine,” he said.
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A view of the general chemistry lab from the stairs located perpendicular to them. The new general chemistry lab located on the first floor has 16 stations with the intent of accommodating 16 students per station for an estimated occupancy of 250.
