c. 1951
blast from the past
hen the state-of-the-art Experimental
Sciences Building (ESB) opened in 1952,
it was one of the largest research buildings
in the United States. Known first simply as
the “Science Building,” it was also one of the
first air-conditioned buildings on campus.
“That doesn’t mean it always worked,” Dr. Joanne
Ravel notes with a chuckle. Ravel, professor emeritus
in chemistry and biochemistry, was one of the first
researchers to inhabit the building. “There were some
great people in this building and lots of really good sci-
ence on the national and international level,” she says.
“ESB provided sorely needed space for the expansion
of biochemistry, microbiology, and zoology,” says Dr.
Lester Reed, professor emeritus and former director of
the Biochemical Institute. Over the past 50 years, ESB
has played host to scientific discoveries in bacteriol-
ogy, biochemistry, genetics, zoology, microbiology, and This picture, taken from the Tower, shows the newly built ESB. At the time, it was one of the
much more. largest research buildings in the U.S. The Anna Hiss Gymnasium, tennis courts and fields can
Researchers in the Biochemical Institute, for example, be seen in the background. Photo courtesy of the Center for American History.
discovered and isolated many of the B-vitamins we
know today. “More vitamins and their variants have
been discovered in the Biochemical Institute than in
2005
any other research unit in the world,” says Reed.
Unfortunately, buildings don’t last as long as the sci-
ence that emerges from them, and ESB is now in a state
of decay.
In March 2005, tests revealed deficiencies in the nat-
ural gas lines and gas was shut off to the building. Most
labs have since moved to the new Neural and Molecular
Sciences Building, where researchers can continue their
scientific discovery in modern laboratories.
ESB still houses some computer labs, administrative
offices, and the only microbiology teaching labs on
campus, which now have gas specially routed to them.
But what was once a bustling research facility now feels
a little like a ghost town. Moving boxes are stacked high
in the halls and most of the labs are dark and silent,
perhaps forever. ✥
In a growing college cramped for research and teaching
space, the loss of ESB is significant. At press time, the fate
This picture, also taken from the Tower, shows how much campus has grown around ESB.
of the building was unknown.
Most of the buildings in this image house college programs. The new Nano Science and
Technology Building (NST) can be seen rising directly behind ESB (see story on page 16).
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