Science Center makes room for new cafe, renovations in atrium

The Science Center's first-floor atrium is set to undergo renovation that will include a new café. While Director of the Science Center Cathy Summa '83 confirmed the project, the new design has not yet been completed. "It's still a design in progress…we can't be very specific," Summa said. Nevertheless, students should expect to see changes in the building at the start of the spring semester.

The café will be located in the building's atrium, which is now the site of the Science Center administration.   The College will move the administration area to the mini-focus, also on the first floor.  Summa hopes the café will attract people to the Science Center to expose them to science.

"The way the building is constructed, science happens behind closed doors," Summa said.  "The whole goal of this project is to help the campus community see the kinds of science that goes on here.  We should be seeing science."  The new atrium will feature ways in which people can interact with and understand scientific concepts.  

But the renovation will take on more projects than just adding a café.  There are several installations in the works, according to Director of the Botanical Gardens Kristina Jones.  "Two that I remember off the top of my head are a station for people to try out Psychology Professor Jeremy Wilmer's TestMyBrain and at least one ‘living wall' installation—bringing a piece of the Botanic Gardens inside," she said in an email.  TestMyBrain tests one's visual abilities, according to Wilmer's web site.

Summa emphasized that science is an important part of the liberal arts curriculum.  "Science is just a different way of exploring our humanity," she said.  She also pointed out that science has its practical purposes.  "[Students] have to know something about science and technology and engineering," Summa said regarding students engaging in the modern world.

The Science Center's flexible plans for the design are intentional.  "We want to invite the community to tell us what they want in the space and see what can happen," Summa said.

The current building vision is that the space will mirror twenty-first century science.  "We don't intend for the space to be static. Science is dynamic.  If we do it right, we'll change it constantly.  We don't want it to get old and boring," Summa said.  "I was a student here years ago and I always thought we should do something with this focus," she said. She was a geology major at the College.

"It sounds great," Keira Kennedy '14 said of the plans for the atrium.  She looks forward to having more interactive features in the atrium.  "I'm really fascinated by the [student research] boards they already have up.  I think it would be even cooler to have something official," she said.  But Kennedy questions how noisy the Science Center will become with a café and interactive features.  

"This is the kind of question that the architect is addressing in choosing where to site various things," Jones said.  "I don't think there will be particularly distracting kinds of noises, mostly the buzz of lots more conversations as we finally will have a nice gathering space in the Science Center."

Kennedy also likes the idea of having another eatery on campus.  "I hope the hours are late," she said of the café.  

"Good coffee until 11:00 p.m. is what I have heard," Professor of Geosciences Dan Brabander wrote in an e-mail.  "Students will be able to use [flex] points."

The availability of late-night coffee in the Science Center appeals to many students. A prospective science major, Julie Kwon '14 expects to spend a lot of time in the Science Center next semester, when she will take two lab courses. "I think we need caffeine," Julie Kwon '14 said about students who study in the Science Center.