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CBEC Open House

January 21, 2015

CBEC Open House

Last week’s CBEC Open House for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC), the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) and Koffolt Labs community was a smashing success. CBEC's new occupants also celebrated the kick off of spring semester, which marked the first term that classes have been held in the building.

Ground was broken for this project in June 2012; and while occupants began moving in last fall, the official building opening and ribbon cutting will take place on April 10, 2015.

OPEN HOUSE

There were two key events both featuring goodies — donuts in the morning; ice cream in the afternoon. It is hard to track specific attendance numbers at an open house, but we do know that food was ordered for 500 in the morning, 300 in the afternoon, and everything was gone.

Liquid nitrogen ice cream demo

In the afternoon, guests could assist in making their own ice cream, thanks to a nitrogen ice cream demonstration by Angie Miller, lab supervisor, and the OSU Chemistry and Biochemistry Demonstration Lab; each year they present demonstrations to thousands of students at local schools, dorms and around campus. Students from both departments (CBC and CBE) work in the demo lab.

Building Tours

16 students associated with the department gave guests guided tours— 84 people signed up and others joined in at the last minute.

Banner Signing

A special banner was created for the event, which guests signed throughout the day. It will be hung at the entrance of the building until the ribbon-cutting event in April 2015.

ABOUT CBEC

The first LEED-certified laboratory building on campus, CBEC is designed to cultivate interaction, collaboration and discovery. This space enhances creativity among teams and supports and expands partnerships already happening between two premier departments.

TWO connected buildings

  • A six-story tower for offices and theoretical research connected by bridges to a four-story lab wing with experimental research and teaching spaces
  • Houses the new Koffolt Laboratories, named for former chemical engineering department chairman Joseph Koffolt
  • Transparent floor-to-ceiling glass exteriors with sun shielding mechanisms to maximize sunlight in winter and minimize in summer

LOBBY/FIRST FLOOR

  • Two-story, 140 ft. long “wave wall” of trapezoidal glass panels that enclose the perimeter lobby and lounge spaces at ground level
  • A 71-foot wide by 9-foot tall hexagonal LED light array by internationally-renowned artist Leo Villareal (to be installed in March 2015)
  • Glass wall allowing multi-floor view of Unit Operations Lab high bay area

BASEMENT LABORATORY WING

  • 20-foot floor-to-celling height accommodates today’s massive, state-of-the-art instrumentation to support intensive research
  • Core Laboratories: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Surface Characterization, X-ray Crystallography, Polymer Chemistry, Rheology, Polymer Processing and Biotechnology

ON EACH FLOOR

  • Laboratory neighborhoods provide research space for 400+ scientists/engineers; include central core of cold rooms, conference rooms, student offices, centralized services, multiple lounges with ample interactive spaces to facilitate research collaborations across disciplines

TOP FLOOR (6TH FLOOR)

  • Dow Student Lounge: With spectacular views of campus and downtown Columbus, the lounge features two distinct areas — a high ceiling quiet reading area with window walls and a groupthink space equipped with large format displays and workstations.

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