Renovations that will transform the old Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center's mental health building into a state-of-the-art computer science and mathematics facility should be completed by the end of the year.
The $5.1 million Sudikoff Laboratory project is already underway at the corner of North College and Maynard Streets, across from Delta Gamma sorority.
The future home of the mathematics and computer science department will be three stories tall.
Jeffrey Sudikoff '77 donated $3 million for the project. The Kiewit Foundation donated another $2.1 million. All of that money is part of the College's Will to Excel capital campaign.
The lab will provide better instructional facilities, according to Professor Donald Johnson, who chairs the Sudikoff Laboratory building committee and is the vice chairman of the mathematics and computer science department.
All undergraduate computer science courses will be held in the new lab, Johnson said. The lab will include a study area, several research and instructional labs and an undergraduate project lab.
"The Sudikoff Laboratory will also provide space for experimental research in areas such as parallel computing, robotics and computer vision," Mathematics and Computer Science Department Chairman Kenneth Bogart told the Valley Business Journal.
Currently the computer science department is located in three separate buildings: Bradley Hall, Choate House and Winifred Raven House. The Sudikoff Laboratory will reunite the department under one roof.
The new building will also house faculty and graduate student offices, but Johnson said there will not be a substantial increase of office space in the new facility.
Sudikoff Laboratory has one classroom, Johnson said. "An alternative plan considered including a classroom wing," he added, "but the budget was insufficient to fund it."
No plans exist to add a classroom wing but the structure of the lab will allow for future expansion.
"Our first priority was to get the staff together and provide better research facilities in an already existing building," Johnson said. "After the hospital moved we were given that opportunity."
According to Johnson, the Sudikoff Laboratory "by no means replaces Kiewit Computation Center." The lab is not part of the north campus development plan, he said.
The north campus plan involves the expansion of Baker Library across Elm Street and the demolition of Bradley and Gerry Halls, the Kiewit Computation Center and Dragon Senior Society.
The development project will extend north to Maynard Street and may involve a second Green.
Sudikoff Laboratory will be on the edge of the renovation, but one plan has nothing to do with the other, Johnson said.
Although the Sudikoff lab is not a brand new building, it "is being equipped with the latest energy conservation standards," he said. "They've done a very thorough job to reach the highest standards possible as if a totally new building were being built."
"The renovation has turned out nicely," Johnson said. "We're are very satisfied with the results."
