Smith Hall of Science and Technology is the single biggest construction project in the history of Grove City College.
Completed this summer – and already in use by students and faculty – Smith Hall will be officially dedicated this week during a ceremony and reception at 4 p.m. Friday. College officials, along with lead donors and the new building’s namesakes William W. Smith Jr. ’69 and his wife Dieva Smith, will be on hand to celebrate a new era in science and technology education at Grove City College.
The two-year renovation and expansion of the former Rockwell Hall of Science, which was built 94 years ago, cost nearly $50 million, all of it raised from private donors as part of Impact 150: The Anniversary Campaign for Grove City College, a multi-year effort to raise $185 million for scholarships and campus improvements.
The project included a full renovation of all four floors of Rockwell Hall, which was the first academic building on campus, a complete redesign of just about everything except the building’s iconic tower, and the construction of a connector linking it to STEM Hall, the College’s newest academic building.
The result is 100,000-square-feet of space dedicated to STEM education and serving some of Grove City College’s fastest-growing majors and strongest programs.
Smith Hall features state-of-the-art research and teaching labs for Exercise Science, Biology, Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics; innovative new spaces for collaboration, study, and discovery that provide students with facilities that match the College’s commitment to excellence; and an array of new equipment and classroom technology that will expand the scope or teaching and student-faculty research.
The Department of Exercise Science will have more than enough space for research into performance and physiology, which generates multiple publications each year, and expanded study of human subjects with an environmental physiology chamber that can alter pressure, temperature, and humidity to simulate climates from sea level and 16,000 feet.
Electrical and Mechanical engineering programs will benefit from a new teaching lab, a mechatronics lab to support robotics research, a biofluids dynamics lab with a laser velocimetry system, a workshop on the ground floor, and a projects commons area on the first floor that features a garage door to accommodate SAE Baja cars and includes the original Foucault pendulum from Rockwell Hall.
Smith’s second floor features teaching labs designed for Biology, pre-health, and nursing majors to study anatomy, physiology, and microbiology and with microscopes, computers, models, and specialized instruments equipped for the handling, culturing, and identifying microorganisms. The new building also features virtual anatomy tables which give students the opportunity to virtually dissect the human body without the need for human cadavers and a microscopy dark room to study biological samples.
Analytical and inorganic Chemistry teaching labs in the renovated building feature specialized equipment to aid students as they learn about the elements of creations, inorganic compounds, and the synthesis of compounds that have potential for anti-cancer drugs. An instrument studio connected to the analytical chemistry lab provides students with access to the tools they need to learn and discover in a professional environment.
The Physics Department gains a pair of teaching labs on the third floor along with specialized spaces for radiation studies utilizing the College’s neutron howitzer, a lab housing a high-resolution electron microscope and an x-ray energy analyzer, and a metrology lab featuring a range of instrumentation, including a laser fluorescence spectrometer, atomic force microscope, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, and several optical tables for custom student-built systems.
The creation of Smith Hall of Science and Technology marks a continued commitment by Grove City College to the study of the natural world and to providing students with excellent facilities to learn and discover.