UO raises matching funds needed for $65 million science building

Robert and Beverly Lewis

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Oct. 10, 2008) – A $13.67 million gift to the University of Oregon will help launch construction of a $65-million, multi-story science building where professors and students will take interdisciplinary research and teaching to a new level.

The word interdisciplinary is no longer adequate to describe the cross-field collaboration that will take place in the Robert and Beverly Lewis Integrative Science Building, university officials said in announcing the gift and the future building's name today.

The building, targeted for completion by 2012, is named for donors Beverly Lewis of Newport Beach, Calif., and her late husband, Robert. The Lewis family is contributing $10 million for the building and $3.67 million to expand an endowment supporting the UO’s Lewis Center for Neuroimaging, which the Lewises helped establish in 2001 with a $10 million gift.

The new building will be located northwest of Oregon Hall along Franklin Boulevard. It will connect to research centers and science departments in neighboring buildings, including the recently opened nanoscience facility, Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories. (Click on map for full-sized view)

"These two facilities, matched by our outstanding faculty and dynamic research programs, will help put the University of Oregon at the forefront of what's being called supra-disciplinary science," said Rich Linton, vice president of research and graduate studies. "This is a new term addressing the integration and cross-fertilization of research areas that already are interdisciplinary in nature, such as biochemistry and genomics."

UO President Dave Frohnmayer said the new facilities will reinforce UO’s research excellence in the basic sciences and expand opportunities to connect UO’s new discoveries to improve human health and performance.

"The Lewis legacy in advancing research on the mind and brain already is the stuff of legend at the University of Oregon," Frohnmayer said. "This new building will bring scientists and sophisticated instrumentation into a collaborative space that through its very architecture will promote new ways of thinking across disciplines. We are proud to name it for Bob and Beverly as a lasting tribute to their roles in opening up exciting new frontiers of inquiry."

The Lewis gift brings private contributions to $32.5 million for the building, which is the next phase in expansion of the university's Lorry I. Lokey Science Complex. Other significant contributions came from Lokey and the Ann and Bill Swindells Charitable Trust. In 2005, the Oregon Legislature authorized $30 million in state bonds for the project, provided the university first raised at least $30 million.

"We expect the building to cost $65 million," said Allan Price, vice president for university advancement. "We have now raised $32.5 million which matches the state bonds and leaves us within $2.5 million of raising the full amount needed to fund the building."

The new building also has sparked related planning to upgrade existing facilities in the Lokey Science Complex. Linton said additional capital and program funding will be needed "to foster innovation in undergraduate science education and bolster recruitment and retention of top graduate students and leading faculty."

A faculty user group is overseeing the conceptual design of the Lewis Integrative Science building. At this stage, the plans call for:

• Five to six stories, 100,000 square feet.

• Expanded facilities for neurosciences, life sciences, geosciences, materials and physical sciences, and computational and information sciences.

• Shared resources, analysis facilities and conference rooms designed to promote and strengthen interdisciplinary research keyed to understanding brain function, improving human health, developing safe technologies and achieving sustainability.

• Advanced imaging capability, including an advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, devoted to an expanded Lewis Center for Neuroimaging.

• New facilities to study effects of gene transplantation on behavior.

• A neuroinformatics center for data processing and analyses.

• Meeting rooms and classrooms designed to facilitate integrative approaches.

The gift brings overall giving from the Lewises to $25 million and increases the total raised during Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives to more than $822 million. The Lewis building is the largest of $250 million in non-athletic-related construction and renovation projects made possible by the campaign.

"These new facilities already are helping the university attract top students and faculty members," said Randy Papé, campaign chair. "Thanks to generous donors such as the Lewis family, we are entering a new era of excellence at the University of Oregon."

(MORE: the gift, the Lewis building, and faculty supported by the Lewis endowment )