Laboratory Planning at Mountain Lake Biological Station

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Virginia is awarded a grant to develop a renovation program and concept plan for updating and repurposing Lewis Hall, the primary research, teaching, and outreach building at the Mountain Lake Biological Station (MLBS). MLBS was founded in 1929 by the University as an inland biological field station for research and teaching in the Southern Appalachians (http://www.mlbs.virginia.edu/). In the last 40 years the Station's scientific research has focused on field based population studies with emphases in evolution, genetics, ecological genetics, population and community ecology, behavioral physiology, and conservation. MLBS is a full service residential facility that offers the complete range of scientific, instructional, and logistical support expected at a modern field station. Lewis Hall was constructed in 1939 and has not been renovated since. While the building is structurally sound and worth preserving for historical and aesthetic reasons, its basic internal layout, utility infrastructure, and technical facilities supporting the Station's core missions have degraded and are out of date. The one-year planning project will produce a program document outlining function and faculty needs in a refurbished Lewis Hall. The project has four phases: Phase #1. Collecting input from all field station stakeholders (MLBS current and potential future researches, instructors and outreach populations); Phase #2. Engaging the national field station directors' community (eg. Organization of Biological Field Stations) in a professionally lead workshop, and visiting sister field stations; Phase #3. Working with planning professionals on campus to generate a professional planning document. Twenty-nine biological research programs from across the country and around the world call Mountain Lake home. Fifty-one graduate students currently rely on MLBS for their doctoral work. Twenty summer courses have been offered in the past five years. Conference and group use of the Station has doubled to over 1,000 user-days in the past year. This project will represent a huge step forward in providing new research, instructional, and outreach services. Central to the planning effort will be the creation of public outreach facilities. MLBS will soon be able to provide resources and services to the general public, K-12, community college, and other regional populations. The teaching and research missions of the Station will also be enhanced, benefiting university-based research programs, faculty from small colleges and other research groups, graduate and undergraduate training programs, UVA Summer Session courses, and our increasing number of external visiting groups, fieldtrips, and conferences. We are confident the improvements resulting from this planning project will increase use and diversity at Mountain Lake.