Skidmore Scope Magazine Annual Edition for 2017

9 SKIDMORE COLLEGE C O N S T R U C T I O N ARCHITECTS’ RENDERINGS give just a suggestion of the CIS’s integrated and shared facilities for the sciences and much more. SCIENCE CENTER PROGRESS Earlier this year, Skidmore’s trustees gave approval to move forward on preconstruction work for the Center for Integrated Sciences. Customized trailers are being planned to house class- rooms, laboratories, and faculty offices that will be displaced by the renovations to the existing Dana Science Center and by new construction at the site of Harder Hall. Last summer and fall, geothermal wells and conduit were installed under the Palamountain Hall parking lot. They will greatly reduce the huge new science center’s energy consumption, providing all the building’s cooling and heating. Other site-enabling work for the CIS includes the creation of new access roads, utility line and pipe relocations, and removal of bedrock. The plan is to complete all preconstruction, permit- ting, and relocation by early 2018, so that the project’s first phase—the new construction—can begin in late spring or summer. Meanwhile, fundraising continues for this high- priority project. “We are on the cusp of realizing the important new aca- demic facility that will further solidify Skidmore’s place among the best colleges in the country,” says Beau Breslin, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs.