The Brown & White

Construction for the new Science, Technology, Environment, Policy and Society building, originally planned to begin this summer, will not begin until a year from now at the earliest, according to administrators.

Anthony Corallo, associate vice president of facilities services and campus planning, said the architectural design process is about 75 percent complete and should be finished by August.

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, an architectural firm from Philadelphia, was hired to design the building in February 2007.

"We're hoping to have a cost on that 75 percent package by the end of May," Corallo said.

Pending necessary funding, Corallo anticipates construction to be finished by fall 2011 at the earliest.

STEPS will be a certified sustainable building and is going to be built on the lawn outside of Maginnes Hall.

It will be designed in an "L" shape along Packard Avenue and Vine Street.

The wing along Packer Avenue will have a green roof.

When it does open, the STEPS building will hold classrooms for the College of Arts and Sciences and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.

However, the space won't be limited to only those colleges, said Anne Meltzer, dean of the arts college and chair of the committee for the STEPS project.

"It is a building that will really serve the whole campus community," Meltzer said.

Although the building will be used by many members of Lehigh, some students are disappointed by the prolonged construction, and the effect it will have on their future at Lehigh.

"The building is obviously an exciting development," James Tilghman, '09, said. "But the fact that most students currently at Lehigh will have graduated by the time construction is finished puts a damper on the news."

The earth and environmental sciences department and the Environmental Initiative office will also be located in the building.

The building will house faculty, research and departmental offices for both graduate and undergraduate programs along with research laboratories for environmental engineering courses, Corallo said.

The building will have a lecture hall, seminar rooms, alcoves for students to study and will hold introductory chemistry and biology courses, Meltzer said.

When the building opens all classes that are held in Williams Hall will be moved to the STEPS building.

Williams Hall will be vacated and later renovated for other purposes.

"We're still determining and planning what the uses will be in renovating Williams," Corallo said.

Parts of Chandler-Ullman and Fritz Lab will also be vacated when the STEPS building opens, Corallo said.

Undergraduate environmental engineering labs and classrooms won't be moving from Fritz, but will need renovations to accommodate undergraduate labs and classrooms.

Meltzer said the university has a space planning process and the original idea for the building was an institutional decision.

"Space across the university is in high demand," she said.

Although there will be some disruption when construction for the building is in process, it will be worth it when the building is finished, Meltzer said.