The curved walls of the University’s newest science building draw viewers’ eyes around it, with the highly reflective glass of its windows neatly hiding what’s inside: nothing. The beautiful facade does an exemplary job of camouflaging the fact that it is just that: a facade.
The Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex has stood as an empty shell since 2005, and The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that some professors are tiring of it.
The building was designed around research; it was crafted to allow scientists easy access to each other, their work and their supplies. The design is a good one, but has yet to be realized.
Officials told the Chronicle the building remains empty because of a lack of funding. In 2005, Dave Irvin, vice president for Plant Operations, told The Daily Cougar that the UH System Board of Regents approved an additional $7 million to the project’s $51 million budget, and that because the first construction phase of the two-story classroom building was under budget, remaining funds would be used to help finish the space.
The Cougar reported in January that the board approved $6 million in Higher Education Assistance Funds to be used to build-out the first floor. However, building-out all five floors will ultimately cost $30 million, which Vice President of Research Donald Birx told the Chronicle was finally secured just this year.
In 2005, Irvin told the Cougar "as we bring new researchers to the campus, we will be able to build the labs to their kind of research." However, the Chronicle reported that a chemistry professor said a number of potential faculty members have turned down a spot at UH because of the state of the building.
When the fundamental goal of a project is not being realized, it is time to reevaluate either the process of attaining that goal or the project itself. In the case of the SERCC, the project is a good one. UH needs more research facilities – but also more researchers.
In its bid for flagship status, UH has continually stressed the importance of research and funding while apparently overlooking – at least in this case – the importance of proper planning. The University must have planned a budget for the building before it decided to have it built, and despite seeing a vast discrepancy between what it had and what it needed, decided to move forward with the plan.
Because of poor planning, UH has had a big, shiny blemish on its reputation for three years. Construction is now under way inside, and we hope it is completed as quickly as possible.
