A $34 million addition to the Science Building at San Diego Miramar College was unveiled Monday.
The two-story, 49,000-square-foot structure is connected to the existing Science Building by a second-floor walkway.
The new building's first floor has two lecture rooms, a storage warehouse and 30 faculty offices with conference, collaboration and break areas, according to the college. On the second floor, there are nine laboratories, science rooms, technician offices and supply storage areas occupying more than 3,000 square feet.
Interim Dean Fred Garces remembers the humble state of Miramar College’s science department in the late 1990s.
“We taught all of biology and chemistry in those two labs,” Garces said.
The new science building elevates Miramar College to a higher level of science education, Garces said.
“It offers the students a state-of-the-art facility — instruments and lab facilities that rivals the UC system.”
The new facility boasts an outdoor bio-pond, 12 new telescopes, a greenhouse and a $250,000 mass spectrometer.
"This building, and all the state-of-the-art equipment housed in it, will play a vital role in providing workforce development and growth for San Diego's economy and the region for years to come,'' San Diego Miramar College President Patricia Hsieh told City News Service. "I am truly thrilled that the Miramar College faculty now has a facility worthy of their accomplishments.''
School officials said the new building, funded with construction bonds approved by Propositions S and N, is on track to receive a certification for sustainability, which would make it one of about 40 certified "green'' buildings in the San Diego Community College District.
