Harvard's new Biological Laboratories were opened for inspection by newspaper correspondents yesterday afternoon, as the first official description of the University's newest scientific unit was made public.
The Laboratories, completed last fall at a cost of two millions of dollars, are designed for research purposes and afford scientifically arranged quarters for the three Departments of Physiology, Zoology, and Botany. Located on Divinity Avenue, they are distinguished in that they contain a most elaborate array of laboratory equipment, including greenhouses, soundproof and constant temperature rooms. The founding of the laboratories was made possible through a gift from the Rockefeller Foundation, aided from funds supplied by the Harvard Corporation.
Planned to make possible the adequate housing of all biological fields now well established here, the new unit will eventually result in the complete combination in one institution of the activities formerly carried on in different parts of the University. In the early days at Harvard botany and zoology were essentially unconnected subjects. The activities at the Gray Herbarium were in no intimate way associated with those at the Zoological Museum. A third biological center in the group was the Bunney Institution, founded in deal with agricultural problems.
With the opening of the new Natural History Laboratories at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in the early 80's, botany, zoology, and geology came into intimate relations. The new and important field of general physiology gradually emerged from the union of botany and zoology.
Much of this growth took place in the University Museum where the chief laboratories for botany and zoology were located. But the Bussey Institution, which had been newly organized, was the seat of no small part of this change.
The Medical School began to enter into more intimate relations with biology. In the beginning its interests were almost entirely with materia medica, then with bacteriology, and finally they shifted to a full appreciation of the significance of biology for medicine. With this striking growth of the organic sciences it was not surprising that the old quarters and equipment should have become antiquated and inadequate.
Hand-Carved Frieze
The new building is in the modernized Georgian style and in keeping with the surrounding Harvard Buildings. An unusual feature, and one deserving of attention, is the hand-carved frieze above the upper tier of windows on the sides of the building forming the interior courtyard. This carving was done directly on the face of the brick in a bold, straight-forward manner, and portrays animal and plant life in its abundance giving at the same time a warm, friendly tone to the structure. The three wings already constructed from a rectangular court, with raised terraces which slope down to the still of the lowest tier of windows.
Interior
Within the building the architect has devoted most painstaking care and study to provide the most complete and comprehensive facilities for the exacting and innumerable experiments necessary in the over widening field of Biological Research. Convenient laboratories of one, two, three, and four units have been furnished with every imaginable service. Constant temperature room, soundproof rooms, photographic rooms, dark rooms, cold rooms, mechanical shops, etc., ect., have been ideally planned and executed. Libraries, lecture rooms, and seminar rooms have been conveniently located on all floors, and, in addition to these, an auditorium in the central portion equipped with the latest of projection and sound recording devices.
The main entrance lobbies have been executed in Crab Orchard stone, the surface of which was left in the same raw and untooled form as when taken from the deposit beds of Tennessee. This stone was carefully selected for colors, and, although every imaginable color is present, the predominating tone of the lobbies is red.
Sound Absorbing Structure
The dividing partitions throughout the building have been constructed of cinder concrete blocks which have a sound-absorbing effect that will be of great value in this type of building. In addition to the acoustical value of these blocks, they possess great tensile strength and a peculiar toughness which permits a flexibility of use for laboratory work.
The linoleum floors are laid with "battleship" linoleum 1-4 inch thick, and the colors have been carefully selected to harmonize with the two tones of the walls and ceilings. The laboratories, research rooms, and offices have made use of this type of flooring, which combines utility and beauty.
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