Architects to present designs for new plant sciences facility

The College of Agriculture will offer a series of listening and feedback sessions about the proposed design for a new phenotyping facility at the Agronomy Center for Research and Education as part of the Plant Sciences Research and Education Pipeline, part of Purdue Moves.

BSA Life Structures, the architectural firm chosen to design the facility, will present the proposed building design 1:30-3 p.m. Sept. 3 in Pfendler Hall's Deans Auditorium. Because the facility will house interdisciplinary research, all interested Purdue faculty, staff and graduate students are encouraged to attend.

Breakout sessions will follow the presentation and give researchers, technicians and other attendees opportunities to visit with the architects for a conceptual “walk-through” of the space that includes layout, functionality and how the rooms can be used. Participants will have the chance to comment on the proposed design.

The September breakout sessions are:

Sept. 3 breakout session in Lilly Hall, Room 2-425:
* 3:30-5 p.m.: Threshing and Shelling - Receiving

Sept. 4 breakout sessions in Whistler Hall, Room 116:
* 8-9:30 a.m.: Plant and Seed Analysis, Plant Processing
* 9:30-11 a.m.: Boilermaker Collaboration - Student Innovation Lab
* 12:30-2 p.m.: Phenomics Tool Development, Data Command and Sensors
* 2-3 p.m.: General Building

The final design presentation will be 8:30-10 a.m. Oct. 7 in Deans Auditorium. The breakout sessions in October are:

Oct. 7 breakout session in Whistler Hall, Room 116:
* 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Threshing and Shelling - Receiving

Oct. 8 breakout sessions in Whistler Hall, Room 116:
* 11 a.m. to noon: Plant and Seed Analysis, Plant Processing
* 1-2 p.m.: Boilermaker Collaboration - Student Innovation Lab
* 2-3 p.m.: Phenomics Tool Development, Data Command and Sensors

Oct. 8 breakout session in Agricultural Administration Building, Room 128:
* 3:30-4:30 p.m.: General Building

The new facility, scheduled to open in spring 2016, is designed to enhance Purdue’s research in plant phenotyping by including spaces to develop state-of-the-art tools and sensing equipment for agriculture. It also will bring seed and plant processing into a temperature-controlled environment with integrated dust and debris removal.

With ACRE just 6 miles from Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, the phenotyping facility will allow faculty and students to expand interdisciplinary collaborations that connect agriculture, engineering, computer science and others disciplines to solve global challenges of feeding a growing world population.