University administrators and scientists ceremonially broke ground May 12 to celebrate the upcoming construction of a new building designed to position Yale in the new millennium as a leader in the study of environmental sciences. The groundbreaking ceremony officially kicked off a project to tear down Bingham Laboratory over the summer and build the state-of-the-art Environmental Sciences Facility (ESF) in its place. Construction of the 98,000-square-foot facility at the lower end of Science Hill is expected to begin in the fall. The three-story ESF will provide facilities for collaborative and interdisciplinary research in the earth and environmental sciences, as well as a climate-controlled area for the storage and preservation of the 11 million specimens in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The new facility will be connected to the museum on all of its floors. "By constructing this facility, Yale is making yet another statement about the importance of preserving its marvelous research collections," said President Richard C. Levin at the groundbreaking ceremony. In addition, he noted, the ESF will provide researchers easier access to those collections and enhance opportunities for fruitful scientific collaboration. "Consider what might be happening on an ordinary day in the year 2002," he said. "At the top of the building you might see one investigator monitoring local climate changes, while on the first floor an atmospheric scientist in the Center for Earth Observation is looking at the same climate formation from outer space, and an environmental biologist is studying the effect of these climate changes on organisms at the molecular level. Meanwhile, in an adjacent lab a paleontologist might reflect upon the history of similar climate changes as revealed in dinosaur fossils. He might then test some of his observations on his collection of living reptiles, while an evolutionary biologist next door is using a computer to simulate the demise of past flora, and another biologist preserves the microbial culprit responsible for the deed in the basement cryovac facility." The University is constructing the ESF as "only one step in a major initiative to make the earth and environmental sciences at Yale preeminent, just as it is only one step in a comprehensive program of modernizing and upgrading all of our laboratory facilities here on Science Hill," Levin said. The new building, more than double the size of Bingham Hall, will have a brick exterior and a full basement. Roughly half of the facility will be devoted to storage of Peabody collections. It will also house interdepartmental laboratories, and offices for the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS), the School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and the departments of ecology and evolutionary biology, geology and geophysics, and anthropology. In addition, there will be two teaching laboratories, a classroom, a study area, a seminar room, a computer laboratory for the Center for Earth Observation and a mass spectroscopy facility. Planning for the ESF has been ongoing for more than five years, according to Provost Alison Richard, who served as master of ceremonies at the groundbreaking. Richard, who is also the Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor of the Human Environment and professor of anthropology, said its construction has been a personal dream of hers for nearly a decade, since she served as director of the Peabody Museum (she held that post from 1990 to 1994). "This is an enormously exciting and happy and powerful occasion in my life," Richard told the audience that gathered for the ceremony on the Bingham Laboratory lawn. She also thanked the many architects, Development Office staff, scientists and others who made her dream a reality. Brief speeches were also made by Karl K. Turekian, director of YIBS; Richard L. Burger, director of the Peabody Museum; and Edward P. Bass '67, a Texas businessman and environmentalist who chairs the YIBS external advisory board. A portion of the $20 million gift Bass gave to Yale in 1990 to establish the YIBS will help support the creation of the ESF. Turekian noted that the start-of-the-art facility represents the vast scientific and technological advances that have occurred since Bingham Hall was built in 1959. While Yale had lofty goals at the time Bingham was erected, Turekian said, "we are now in a better position to actually accomplish some of those goals." The ESF, he commented, should serve the needs of many generations to come. On the same theme, Burger noted that there was once a time when specimens in the Peabody Museum's collections were studied for a limited number of purposes. Today, he said, a single specimen can reveal a huge amount of information about the earth's history. "With each technological breakthrough, we see that we can get more and more information from a single specimen," Burger said. "While the specimen was once selected simply to study its morphology, now we can use stable isotopes to study the change in climate each year. While once we collected hair in order to identify a species, now we can talk about the changes in the diet of the animal, perhaps an animal that's now extinct. And through this, in a sense, we now can see that there will be a time in the future -- not at all distant -- where we will be able to reconstruct diversity and change throughout world history through the scientific study of collections like the Peabody's." Bass praised Levin for making the crucial decision to embark on the ESF building project and complimented all those involved in its design planning for their understanding that "architecture is important in human endeavors and the successful pursuit of both research and teaching." The project also is a reflection of "values that are the very heart of this University," said Bass. "The purpose of this building, the very nature of this building, reflects strongly upon Yale's value of social responsibility, of leadership in research and in teaching, to carry humanity forward in future generations," commented the Yale alumnus. "And this building addresses what well may be the most important, the most serious, the most challenging issues of humanity going into the 21st century: those surrounding the environment and humankind's impact and interaction with the environment." Yale officials anticipate the ESF to be completed in the year 2001. The design architect for the project is David M. Schwarz of the Washington, D.C. firm of David M. Schwarz Architectural Services, Inc. The Architect of Record is GSI Architects, Inc. from Cleveland, Ohio. Construction management is by Linbeck. -- By Susan Gonzalez T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Commencement, 1999 Style Facility to enhance strength in environmental sciences Guide again taps Yale as a 'must-see' attraction 'Under My (Green) Thumb': Rolling Stones sideman talks about life . . . 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 Pictured at the May 12 groundbreaking ceremony for the Environmental Sciences Facility are (from left) Professor Karl Turekian, architect David M. Schwarz, donor Edward P. Bass '67, Provost Alison Richard, President Richard C. Levin and Peabody Museum director Richard L. Burger.