Double-pane insulated glass, an automatic climate control system and multiple irrigation zones have Western faculty excited about greater research possibilities within a new greenhouse located behind Arntzen Hall that will house research projects from the biology department and Huxley College of the Environment.

Although design for the $500,000, 1,188-square-foot structure began last summer, professors who need greenhouse space for research have been working toward this for years.

David Hooper, a Western biology professor and researcher, said a group of professors applied for minor capital funding several times over the years to get the original greenhouse enlarged. Hooper, who was involved with planning as a member of the Greenhouse Committee, said the headhouse took priority over an additional range.

"We were originally hoping to get two new ranges to allow more space and potentially different conditions in different greenhouses for different projects," Hooper said. "But as costs went up we lost that second range."

Hooper said anyone doing research with plants will benefit from the new space. Increased greenhouse space will also allow more room to maintain plants for the teaching collection, he said.

Any school that has an active biology research program generally has research greenhouses because important work can often only be done with plants, said Peter Thut, biology stockroom supervisor and safety officer.

The new greenhouse is adjacent to the original Biology Greenhouse, which was built nearly 13 years ago, Thut said. Initial blueprints for the original greenhouse included a headhouse and two ranges -- one range for teaching and another for research -- but limited funding resulted in a single range and no headhouse, he said.

"The headhouse is traditionally like a fancy potting shed," Thut said.

Equipped with stainless steel work tables, large sinks and sprayers for easy clean-up, the new headhouse provides a separate space for researchers to pot plants and conduct analysis, Thut said.

The range is the building where plants are grown and stored. It is a 48.6 feet by 17.4 feet structure of aluminum and glass, said Barbara Alten, senior architect and project manager.

"It's a pretty beautiful glass structure," Alten said.

Thut said the range is accessed via the headhouse, which is set up on the electronic prox card system. Prox cards are issued to approved occupants in place of conventional keys to increase safety and security. Thut said most new buildings are switching to prox cards because the system provides easier control and maintenance.

The entire structure is also protected by fire and security alarms as well as motion and broken glass sensors, Thut said.

The new range will solve many issues that made the original greenhouse inadequate for research, Thut said. Insufficient ventilation and screening can lead to contamination because unwelcome pollen, seeds and insects can fly in, he said.

Thut said the new range has a fully automated control system that maintains the researcher's desired climate. The computer will know when to activate the fans and open or close the shade-curtain and roof. Researchers can also control range settings remotely from their office computers, he said.

The range contains two devices that help conserve energy. The first is a 1,000 gallon rainwater tank that collects runoff water from the building's gutters to water plants and garden plots, Thut said. The second is a swamp cooler that uses evaporative cooling to function as an air conditioning system, he said.

Alten said the overall building process was smooth, but she saw first-hand how the economic downturn affected certain components of the project.

“One of them was the manufacturers of the swamp cooler we wanted to use went belly up,” Alten said. “We're finding some of our materials, or the contracts that were there three months earlier, those companies are gone.”

The cost per square footage is generally much higher in a laboratory than in an academic building due to increased mechanical and electrical equipment, Alten said. While the new greenhouse is relatively small compared to other campus building projects, Alten said the structure cost approximately $500,000.

Western biology professor Jeff Young said the original greenhouse was limited in usefulness due to its size. He said the main function has been to provide plant material for the lab sections of Biology 204 and Biology 206.

Young said he did not have much need for research greenhouse space when he came to Western in 1999. Young works at the cellular level with the plant Arabidopsis, which is small and can be grown indoors, he said.

But since he has been at Western, Young said he and other professors have had an increased need for research greenhouse space.

"This will allow us to do experiments we've been putting on the backburner for several years," Young said.

Hooper said guidelines for research space in the new greenhouse have not yet been determined. Deciding factors will include the size and climate needs for potential projects, but the goal is to accommodate three or four projects at once, he said.

Thut said there are plans to eventually upgrade the original greenhouse. A request has already been submitted to build a third range, but he said the new structure will be the research greenhouse for the foreseeable decade. Over the years it will be used for a variety of projects each with different needs, Thut said.

"We designed it to be as flexible as possible," Thut said. “We haven’t had a research greenhouse before, so I don’t even know what the possibilities are yet.”

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