Page 2C
THE BATTALION
MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1978
Construction
I
Largest campus building to boast unique feature
Academic-Agency Building construction due
By FLA VIA KRONE
Battalion Stall
Construction of the largest single
building on the Texas A&M Univer
sity campus will begin this fall.
The new 255,500-square-foot
Academic and Agency Building will
contain more space than Zachry En
gineering Center, the Oceanog
raphy and Meteorology Building or
Harrington Education Center,
project coordinator Harry Zimmer
man said.
Project bids will be accepted this
fall with the Texas A&M System
Board of Regents awarding a con
tract sometime in November.
Before breaking ground some
time in February or March of 1979,
the wooden barracks along Ireland
street must be removed.
The six-story structure will house
seven organizations, including:
' I =
English Department
College of Business Administra
tion
Executive Development Pro
grams
Institute of Statistics
Texas Transportation Institute
Texas Real Estate Research Cen
ter
Texas A&M Research Foundation
The $15,743,000 Academic and
Agency Building boasts several
unique features, said Charles Caf-
fee, facilities and planning architect.
The narrow ends of the long,
roughly diamond-shaped structure
face east and west, minimizing ex
posure to the sun’s rays. This "solar
orientation” will prevent the sun’s
rays from baking the windows on
the building’s north and south sides
and should result in energy savings,
Caffee said.
Project architects, Koetter,
Tharp, Cowell and Bartlett of Hous
ton, designed the building to take
advantage of the land’s natural slope
thereby minimizing foot-traffic
through the building.
The Ireland street entrance will
serve students going to and from
classrooms located on the building’s
first floor, Caffee said. The entrance
on the opposite side of the building
will lead directly to the second floor
and will serve the second through
sixth floor personnel.
“With students on the first floor
and the administrative personnel
above, we hope to separate the
heavy and light foot-traffic,” Caffee
said.
The Academic and Agency Build
ing will contain 38 classrooms, more
than any other building on campus,
Caffee said. All but two of the class
rooms will be located on the first
floor and will provide seating for
about 2,000 students.
Classrooms range in size from 20
seats to 280 seats and were designed
with students in mind, said Zim
merman.
“We have attempted to keep
classes small by keeping the rooms
small, but classrooms are not going
to be overcrowded,” Zimmerman
said.
“Also, several classrooms are
sloped and have seats arranged in a
U-shape so students can see each
other and interact with one
another,” Zimmerman said.
In addition to classrooms, the first
floor of the new building also will
contain a 90-terminal remote com
puting center. The facility will serve
as both computing center and class
room laboratory and will have a re
pair room for damaged terminals,
Zimmerman said.
Several new facilities are planned
for the English department, also lo
cated on the first floor, Zimmerman
said.
The learning resources labora
tory, a “directed study area” where
classroom activities can be video
taped, will be available to students,
Zimmerman said.
Speech and Communications, the
drama unit within the English De
partment, will receive a set design
lab complete with drafting boards
and equipment, a costume design
lab and a rehearsal lab with a small
stage, Zimmerman said.
Between classes, students will be
able to relax in what Zimmerman
calls the “Grand Hall.” Running the
length of the building, the Grand
Hall will contain couches, tables and
vending machines.
“It will be a nice place for stu
dents to get together,” Zimmerman
said. “It will be light and colorful
with big, high ceilings and
skylights.”
The first floor of the Academic
and Agency Building is not the only
floor boasting new or improved
facilities, Zimmerman said.
The College of Business on the
third floor will receive a behavioral
laboratory for management and
marketing research. It will contain
six test chambers and one control
room complete with physiograph
and video equipment. There will
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This is a model of the new Academic and Agency building
planned for the Texas A&M University campus. Construction
Battalion photo by Pat OMA
on the six-story structure, to he the largest building on cam
pus when completed, will begin this fall.
also be a small kitchenette which
will be used mainly by the market
ing department to study various as
pects of the marketing food prod
ucts, Zimmerman said.
An additional learning resources
laboratory will be located on the
third floor.
“This facility will have a check-out
counter,” Zimmerman said. “It will
stock video and cassette tapes, slide
carrels and other equipment for in
dividual and group study.”
A reading lounge containing col
lections of specialized material will
be available for graduate business
students, Zimmerman said.
A group of meeting rooms similar
to those in Rudder Tower will be
"located on the fourth floor of the
new building, Zimmerman said. Al
though the meeting rooms are in
tended for use by the continuing
education and service programs of
fered through Executive Develop
ment, other departments and agen
cies in the building also can use the
rooms, Zimmerman said.
The outside features of the
Academic and Agency Building
have been planned as carefully as
the inside, Zimmerman said.
All of the oak trees now on the
building site will remain standing,
Zimmerman said.
A large plaza will lead up toll
second floor entrance and Zimi
man said he envisions it as a pin
that can be used for outdoor mt#
ings, parties or classes.
Racks with room for tbn
hundred bicycles will be place
around the building.
Zimmerman said the Acadei
and Agency Building will!
finished in the summer of 1
New medical facility will serve
veterinary, med programs
The planned $10.5 million veterinary sciences
complex is designed to substantially increase
the size of the present small animal clinic
which now handles more than 15,000 cases a
Battalion photo by Pat O'Malley
day. The addition, shown at left in an ar
chitect’s model, will be built onto the clinic
(right). Construction is expected to begin in
January 1979.
By FLA VIA KRONE
Battalion Staff
A $10,500,000 contract for con
struction of a veterinary clinical sci
ences facility will be awarded this
fall, said Edwin Ellett, professor of
small animal medicine and project
coordinator.
The new facility will house a
teaching hospital, small animal
clinic and animal research modules,
Ellett said.
The College of Veterinary
Medicine at Texas A&M University
has the largest veterinary medicine
teaching program in the nation, but
proportionally has one of the small
est facilities for teaching clinical sci
ences, according to statistics com
piled by the college.
The present teaching hospital was
built in 1955 to accommodate 64
students per class. The college now
admits 138 students into each enter
ing class, Ellett said.
In 1968, a substantial addition
was made for the large animal clinic.
Space for the small animal clinic
remained limited.
Statistics show that 15,200 square
feet are available for small animal
medicine and associated clinical
support areas at Texas A&M. By
comparison, the veterinary college
in Ohio provides 64,000 square feet
to each incoming class of 130 stu
dents.
Veterinary schools with about the
same available clinic space as the
Texas A&M College of Veterinary
Medicine have smaller classes and
case loads, statistics show.
The small animal clinic at Texas
A&M handles about 15,000 cases
per year in a space designed for
4,000 cases, Ellett said.
About 45 percent of the cases
brought to the small animal clinic
consist of referrals, which come
from all parts of the Southwest, El
lett said.
“As the only veterinary medical
school in the state we act as an ex
tension of private veterinary prac
tice,” Ellett said. “We are able to
provide trained personnel and
equipment that a private veterinar
ian would not be able to afford.
The ground floor of the new
57,784 square foot facility will house
the small animal clinic and most of
the teaching and clinical casework
areas, Ellett said.
The expanded small animal clinic
will accommodate as many as 300
animals. In addition, a radioisotope
ward for animals undergoing
radioisotope treatments will be con
structed.
Animals undergoing radioisotope
studies must be isolated because
their waste products are contami
nated with radioactive material, El
lett said.
The clinic will also contain a sepa
rate area for tropical and zoo ani
mals, Ellett said.
Treatment facilities will include a
nine-room surgical suite and
specialized areas for eye, cardiovas
cular and neuro-surgery, Ellett said.
Access to surgery will be made
through a specially constructed
“sterile” corridor, Ellett added.
Other treatment facilities will in
clude an intermediate care and in
tensive care unit, four X»
laboratories and 14 examinafe
rooms.
Clinical diagnostic laboralorit
will occupy most of the secondfloo
The college plans to use tlie dii
nostic laboratories for clinical pn
tice and research programs, Ell
said.
The laboratories will provil
services in the fields of clinical pdf
ology, microbiology, paraiflj
and epidemiology, Ellett said
Plans also call for laboratfl|
clinical pharmacology and t(fiA
ogy, radiology and nuclfli
medicine.
In addition to staff offices,
second floor also will contain
kitchenette and sleeping arealt
house students on emergency
call, Ellett said.
A 6,000-square-foot research^
ity will be located in the buikte
basement along with student surp
cal laboratories, Ellett said, ft
basement also will contain alaundi)
and sterilization equipment rangiif
from two 100-pound waste
machines to vacuum autoclaves.
“Hopefully, with these fac®
we will get some good clinical rt
search programs moving,”
said.
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