Research, Teaching Efforts to Soon Call Shelby Hall Home

Shelby Hall, The University of Alabama’s $50 million interdisciplinary teaching and research complex, is on schedule to meet a November 2003 completion date.

“It’s going to provide us with state-of-the-art space for an interdisciplinary research and teaching facility,” said Dr. Joe Benson, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Shelby Hall is named in honor of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and his wife, Dr. Annette N. Shelby. It will provide a new home for the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry, as well as undergraduate and graduate classrooms and laboratories. Its research wings are designed to support interdisciplinary research in transportation, geosciences, energy, biosciences, chemical sciences and materials science.

“We anticipate a move-in date of late fall 2003,” Benson said. “And we hope to have classes begin there in the spring of ’04.”

The 200,000 square foot complex includes two teaching/administrative wings and three interdisciplinary research wings, designed so students and faculty can easily move between classrooms and research areas. With the five wings arranged as a pentagon, the building is designed to bring natural light into the research, teaching and administrative spaces.

The research wings are designed to support groups of scientists, often from different disciplines, who work as teams. To allow for maximum flexibility, research labs in the new building are modular and arranged along corridors with offices and support facilities located adjacent to the labs. Laboratory units are assembled into “laboratory neighborhoods,” allowing for a variety of space assignments.