A NEW building that will soon house teaching laboratories will be opened before the end of the academic year.
Lawrence Pangan, in-house engineer of the Facilities and Management Office, said the Central Laboratories building was scheduled to be finished by April, and would be fully operational in Academic Year 2017-2018.
The laboratories, previously housed in the Main Building, are being transferred to the new Central Lab near P. Noval Street.
The College of Rehabilitation Sciences, however, is already using the ground floor for some of its regular classes.
“For sure na `yan this year, April. Next school year magagamit na talaga [ng] buo [`yung building] kasi ililipat na lahat [ng facilities this semester],” Pangan said in an interview with the Varsitarian.
Pangan said the building would accommodate almost all laboratories used by different colleges in the University, and would also be shared with the Research Center for Natural and Applied Sciences and the Laboratory Equipment and Supplies Office (Leso).
Laboratories from the Faculty of Pharmacy will occupy the second to third floors, while some spaces in the fourth floor will be shared with the College of Science.
Science laboratories will occupy the fifth to seventh floors. Parts of the seventh floor are allotted to research centers. The auditorium and Leso will be on the eighth floor.
The new laboratory building is parallel to the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex and adjacent with the facilities management building.
The transfer of the laboratories is meant to preserve the structure of the Main Building, an 89-year old National Cultural Treasure.
Pangan said the chemicals in the laboratories were damaging the Main Building’s foundations, hence the need for the new Central Lab.
In a previous report by the Varsitarian, Science Dean John Donnie Ramos said the vacated spaces in the Main Building would be converted into administrative offices, online resource units, lecture halls and faculty rooms.
Construction of the new building, handled by Malate-based construction company IronCon Builders and Development Corp., began on Sept. 21, 2015.
