IU breaks ground on $25M lab building at IUPUI

Indiana University will break ground Wednesday afternoon on a $25 million science and engineering laboratory building on the IUPUI campus in downtown Indianapolis.

The facility will include nearly 34,000 square feet of research and classroom space. It is the first phase of a planned two-stage project to improve the university’s research facilities. Total cost has yet to be determined, an IU spokesman said.

The new building will be located on North Blackford Street west of Inlow Hall.

The project is funded primarily by a portion of research grants set aside for the building and also by funds from the Purdue University School of Engineering and Technology, which will use part of the facility.

“This facility addresses a critical need for space, a result of the continued expansion of both research and enrollment at the school,” said Simon Rhodes, dean of IUPUI’s School of Science, in a prepared statement. “Given our current trajectory, this new space will be just the beginning.”

Rhodes will be joined at the groundbreaking by IU President Michael McRobbie, IUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz and other IU and Purdue officials.

The additional research and lab space is part of an aggressive building campaign launched by McRobbie in early 2010.

He said then that the university wanted to construct at least 12 buildings on its Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses in an effort to connect the IU School of Medicine with its partner IU Health and with a life sciences corridor northwest of downtown.

IU is counting on raising $1.1 billion in private funds for additional buildings at IUPUI.

The building campaign includes the IU Neurosciences building under construction on West 16th Street near IU Health’s Methodist Hospital. The $53 million building will have 150,000 square feet of research space.

Already opened is the $20 million Glick Eye Institute, funded by Eugene and Marilyn Glick, west of IU Hospital.