The University plans to construct a new $10-12 million science building to house the Biochemistry Department, administrators said last week.

The planned building, approved in a Corporation meeting early this spring, will include office and laboratory space for eight full professors and four assistant professors. A special animal laboratory will be included in the structure.

Administrators said yesterday they are not sure of the building's site or of a possible completion deadline.

One possible site option could be in the area adjacent to the Mallinckrodt and Gibbs science buildings.

Another possible site is the land abutting the Busch-Riesinger Museum on Divinity Ave. However, Richard G. Leahy, associate dean of the Faculty for resources and planning, said yesterday that site would require the destruction of both an old home at 7 Divinity Ave. and the Prince Building, which currently houses the General Education Office.

Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for government and community affairs, said yesterday that both sites are compatible with the Long Range Plan of development that Harvard released last month. That plan delineates areas in which Harvard plans academic construction in the future.

Because site plans are not definite, no ground-breaking date has been set yet. But Walter Gilbert, American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology and chairman of the Building Committee, said last week that next summer would be the earliest that construction could begin.

If work begins at that time and construction goes smoothly, the building may be finished in approximately three years.

Funds for the building are coming in part from the Mallinckrodt endowment, Hale Champion, vice president for financial affairs, said yesterday. Plans for other monies are still tentative.

Gilbert described the planned structure as a "large, ultramodern facility" that will enable the members of the Biochemistry Department to move from the crowded Biological Laboratories.