Plans for the construction of two new major academic facilities are beginning to take shape, thanks to a number of large donations to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) this year.

A location for the Maxwell Dworkin building--the new computer science and electrical engineering facility--has been selected, according to outgoing Dean of the Division of Applied Sciences Paul C. Martin '51.

The Maxwell Dworkin building will be constructed at the present location of the Gordon McKay Laboratory on Oxford Street.

The new building is funded by part of a $25 million gift from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Microsoft executive vice-president Steven A. Ballmer '77 and is named after the donors' mothers.

Gates and Ballmer earmarked $20 million of their gift to a state-of-the-art research and teaching facility. But discussions are still underway on which laboratories and offices the building will hold, Martin said.

According to Martin, "most, but not all, of the money for the building is in hand," and efforts are underway to raise additional funds.

Faculty and staff may be moved out of McKay this summer and construction of the new building is likely to begin in the spring of 1998.

"If all goes perfectly, the building might be in operation in the fall of 1999, but that's a very optimistic schedule which could run into delays at many points in many ways," Martin said.

A planning committee has been formed for the construction of the Naito Building, a new facility for the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, according to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

The new building is being funded by a $8 million gift from Haruo Natio, the chief executive of the Eisai Company, a major Japanese pharmaceutical firm.

Under current plans, the Naito Building will link the north end of the Converse Laboratory and the northeast end of the Mallinckrodt Laboratory, according to Knowles.

"[It] will provide essential new laboratories and improve the circulation throughout the whole department," he said.

David A. Evans, chair of the department, said the new gift will also help attract new Faculty to the department.

"The department has confronted a space shortage for some time that has prevented it from reaching its full complement of Faculty," Evans said last month.