Plant Science Building renovations honor past, look to future

The biggest building on the Ag Quad, the Plant Science Building is shaped like a large letter “E.” In the just-completed Phase 1 renovations, two “legs” of the “E” and half the central building have been refurbished. Lab spaces that had previously been designed to accommodate individual faculty members have been replaced with large, shared workspaces, where three to five lab groups can work side-by-side, sharing equipment and strengthening collaborations. The $69 million Phase 1 renovation was made possible by funds from the SUNY State University Construction Fund and gifts from alumni donors, including alumnus William Boyle ’55, MBA ’56.

Phase 2 – which the SUNY Board of Trustees voted to support through an additional $58.5 million award – will upgrade the rest of the building and improve physical connections between PSB and Mann Library. The renovations also include new meeting and event space, and upgrades for plumbing, electrical infrastructure and energy efficiency. College planners are aiming for LEED sustainability certification. 

The Plant Science Building has been home to pioneering luminaries and groundbreaking research since it first opened its doors in 1931. Within its walls, CALS scientists have made foundational discoveries in plant biology and plant–microbe interactions, developed new plant varieties, and driven transformative advances in agriculture in New York and around the world. Those efforts laid the groundwork for addressing some of society’s most enduring challenges related to food, climate, ecosystem and human well-being, and formed the foundation of the school’s Grand Challenges, Rose said.

“That legacy now directly informs the next generation of work taking shape within the renovated space, creating clear continuity between past achievements and future innovation,” he said. 

Dan Buckley, professor of soil microbiology and head of SIPS’s Soil and Crop Sciences Section, has moved his lab into one of the new shared spaces. The new lab suite includes five faculty-led lab groups which focus on soil ecology and chemistry. Buckley’s lab studies soil microbes and their interactions with carbon and nitrogen (critical processes for plant growth). The other investigators explore soil organic matter dynamics, nutrient availability, and soil chemical interactions including the fate of microplastics and PFAS compounds.

“We're really looking forward to the way that this is going to improve our research and our opportunities for collaboration, but I can’t overstate the impact that it’s had on our people,” Buckley said. “The setup of our old labs was very cellular and isolating. The philosophy of these new labs is to bring people together and encourage interaction, by design. That brings energy and vitality that’s going to make an impact on our ability to do our research going forward, and it’s just making this a much better place to be as a person.”

Casey Barickman, assistant professor of horticulture, studies how vegetable crops react to environmental stressors like flood or drought, with a focus on improving yield, quality and climate resilience in tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy greens and other crops. Barickman is sharing space with two other, more senior horticulturalists, and the arrangement has been a boon for him, in having access to mentorship and to specialized equipment, he said. He’s already submitted grant proposals on new research themes with both of those colleagues.

“There’s a sense of camaraderie, when students, postdocs and principal investigators are in the lab together,” he said. “It gives a real sense of ideas flowing back and forth between programs, and we’re seeing insights that might benefit one of our programs, or all of our programs.”

Ithaca-based SIPS faculty are spread across four interconnected buildings near the Ag Quad – Emerson Hall, Bradfield Hall, Mann Library and the Plant Science Building. The design for Phase 2 renovations includes strengthening the flow of people and ideas between the buildings, Rose said. For example, midway along the corridor that connects researchers in Mann and the Bailey Hortorium Herbarium with those in the Plant Science Building will be a new “biodiversity hub” space for teaching, research and engagement.

Another fundamental vision of the renovation has been to integrate teaching, research and meeting areas throughout the building, to create dynamic spaces that can enable activities and evolve as needed, Rose said.

“We’ve intentionally distributed teaching spaces across multiple floors of the building, and because the multi-user labs are designed with glass-front walls, students heading to class can see their peers actively engaged in research, sparking their imaginations and revealing potential opportunities,” he said. 

“I love the fact that we have teaching space integrated, because students are as central to our mission as the research that’s happening,” added Magdalen Lindeberg, assistant director of SIPS. “It feels like a fundamental statement of our priorities to have teaching, research and extension spaces all incorporated into the building, side by side.”

Planning for these renovations has required SIPS leaders to think about everything from granular logistics – like how to bring plant materials from fields into labs without dragging mud through the building – to long-range “future-proofing,” Rose said. 

“We don’t know what our needs will be in 20-30 years, so we’ve redesigned lab space to be as flexible as possible, such as including movable benches and enabling new types of equipment and technologies, so that researchers won’t be physically limited by where they are,” Rose said. “It’s a game changer on all fronts.”

Krisy Gashler is a writer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.