OFFICE AND LABORATORY BUILDING

This four-level building became a connecting link between the Physics Building and Gilman Hall and was paid for “from funds accumulated in our overhead charges on our contracts with OSRD, the Army and the Atomic Energy Commission.” ¹

The architect was selected in February 1947 and the plans were approved and bids received in October of that year. Construction started shortly thereafter and was completed in the spring of 1950.

The intended use of the building was described in the Iowa State Daily Student on August 2, 1947:

The connecting link will be air-conditioned, for scientific reasons, and will contain in the basement, spectro-graphic laboratories and facilities for tracer chemistry. The first floor will contain the administrative offices of the Institute, a large conference room for seminars and the research laboratories of Dr. Spedding and Dr. E.I. Fulmer, assistant to the director of the Institute for Atomic Research. The top floor will contain a library reading room for joint use of the Physics and Chemistry Departments, the Atomic Institute and offices for the theoretical physicists.