Marine Biological Laboratory

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		Return to Table of Contents Strategic Planning Effort Identifies Whitman as Top Facilities Project In June 2002 the Strategic Planning Task Force on Facilities identified the Whitman building as the facility with the greatest number of deferred maintenance needs at the MBL. In August 2002 this same Task Force recommended to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee that the Whitman building be completely modernized, reconfigured, and expanded. This was subsequently reported to the Board of Trustees. In November 2002 the Board of Trustees agreed that the Whitman building should be renovated, authorized the hiring of an architect, agreed to create the Whitman Center for Summer and Visiting Research and asked that an interim director of the Whitman Center be appointed, and that an advisory committee be established to help with the redesign effort. In March 2003 the MBL selected the firm of Tsoi/Kobus & Associates to develop a design for the Whitman building. The Board also approved the expenditure of $1.2 million to fund the design phase of the project. During the summer of 2003 Whitman Center Director Robert Goldman, William Speck, President of the Corporation John Dowling and members of the Whitman Redesign Advisory Committee held two meetings with the summer research community. Architects from Tsoi/Kobus presented various floor plans and the audience was encouraged to provide feedback. The summer community was assured that no summer research would be lost to renovations, which are expected to begin in the spring of 2005 at the earliest. The Advisory Committee and MBL staff also held weekly meetings to further fine-tune the designs. Click here to learn more about the MBL's strategic planning efforts.