Four years of construction and $115 million later, the French Family Science Center-one of the most significant additions to West Campus in recent years-is now open for classes and research.

The 280,000-sq. ft. center-founded with a $30 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and named for Melinda French Gates, Trinity '86 and Fuqua '87-brings the chemistry, biology and physics departments together under one roof.

"I'm excited. The building represents in a really powerful symbolic way our commitment to science research and education," Provost Peter Lange said. "I'm pleased with it architecturally and practically."

Stephen Nowicki, dean of natural sciences, said the FSC will play a major role in bringing the sciences at Duke into the physical and academic spotlight.

"In a sense, you can see the FSC as being the next big piece of the big puzzle of the science and engineering complex," he said. "It brings everybody in the sciences closer together, running from the [Duke University] Medical Center to the Biological Sciences Building."

Nowicki said the FSC was designed by the same faculty members who now occupy its labs and offices.

The architects, Moore Ruble Yudell and the Hillier Group, worked closely with professors to modify the spaces to suit their preferences.

"The architecture of French is intimately linked with the way we use the building to perform science," Nowicki said. "In the FSC, the introductory labs on the ground floor look up into the more complex labs in through the atrium; it's almost poetic."

University Architect John Pearce said the FSC was designed to physically and logistically fit in with the two existing science buildings it straddles: the Biological Sciences Building and the Physics Building.

"Its close proximity to the Bryan Center is excellent-it's very close to the main traffic of West Campus," said David Beratan, chair of the chemistry department. "I think the students will love the interaction and public spaces, even if they aren't using the classrooms here."

Philip Benfey, chair of the biology department, said administrators wanted the FSC to enhance and encourage interactions at all levels between faculty, graduates and undergraduates.

"Architecturally, they've managed to pull it off," Benfey said. "I expect it to be a hub of activity. It certainly has that possibility. It will be a magnet for people to discuss things, sciences and otherwise."

The FSC contains cutting-edge research facilities that bring together the chemistry, physics and biology departments.

"The FSC enhances Duke's research capacity enormously, and it brings the biology department together for the first time in 20 years," Benfey said.

The FSC also includes new undergraduate teaching labs that are smaller and have more hood space, two design specifications that are well suited for undergraduate experimentation.

"Our current space in Gross Chemistry [Building] was not acceptable for doing modern research," said Eric Toone, professor of chemistry.

Nowicki described the space as a 21st-century facility that could have implications for the way the sciences are taught at Duke.

He added that the FSC will help Duke recruit postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, doctoral candidates and undergraduate science majors.

"You can have great ideas, but if you don't have people to implement them, you don't get far very fast," he said.

The move to the FSC by all three departments will be complete by the end of the semester, Nowicki said.

He added that every natural science course this semester will be taught in the FSC, except for introductory chemistry and organic chemistry classes.

Toone said there have been some concerns among faculty that the new building does not have enough teaching classrooms. The largest lecture hall in the FSC holds up to 100 people.

"It's a problem that is endemic to West Campus," Toone added.

He said that unless the Department of Chemistry decides to split up the big undergraduate teaching classes, they will have to be taught in some other building.

"Is the building perfect? No. No building ever is," Toone said. "Is it a huge step up from Gross? Absolutely."

Senior Jeff Ackermann, a chemistry major, said he was very excited about the new building.

"I think that there will be a lot less people skipping chemistry classes when they don't have to make the long walk to the Gross Chemistry Building," he said. "What remains to be seen is whether its chairs are as comfortable as those in Gross Chem."