University plans to open new greenhouse in July

The $8.8 million greenhouse construction project for the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design at West Virginia University is slated for completion in July.

John Sommers, construction manager for Facilities Management, said the project has begun the intensive construction phase, and the greenhouse structure is on schedule to be completed before the fall semester.

"The structure you can see now is called the head house. We have the brick facade in place, the windows will be going up in the next week or so, and they're building the interior walls," Sommers said. "Most of the mechanical and electrical infrastructure has been run, and it's moving along really well."

Sommers said construction on the project will continue during the spring semester, and construction on the actual greenhouse structure will begin in the coming weeks.

"As far as the greenhouse itself, the foundation walls are up and they're getting the anchor bolts installed," Sommers said. "We'll begin to erect some steel probably here in the next week."

The project will include an administrative building, classrooms, labs and state-of-the-art horticultural facilities. Sommers said the University would reach "substantial completion" of the project in mid-June, and would complete the project in July.

"The reason for the delay is because there are always a lot of small items that you can identify at the end of a project that need to be resolved," Sommers said. "We try to allow a period of time to get things ready, and once we've completed it, we'll move in users into the building and prepare them for classes in the fall."

The greenhouse is the first phase of the $159.5 million Evansdale Campus building project slated to take place through 2014.

The greenhouse will replace an old structure on the same site, Sommers said, and will support research from the Plant and Soil Sciences department. It will encompass more than 28,250 square feet and feature more advanced heating and cooling systems.

"It will be a much better teaching environment," Sommers said. "The conditioning of the structure will be accessed through digital monitoring and automated controls. Heat, humidity and cooling will be much more controlled. It will be a much more energy efficient building."

The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service will contribute 25 percent of the construction cost for the new structure, and a portion of the growing area will be dedicated to USDA research. A significant portion of the 19,000-square-foot growing area will be allotted to the Davis College for research.

"The new greenhouse will expand the college's capabilities in terms of control," Sommers said. "They'll have a greater range – they can shift the environment in the building from arctic to equatorial to more tropical. They'll be able to isolate their plants to avoid cross-contamination. It's a much more controlled environment because all of those things are critical. It will be a state-of-the-art greenhouse facility."