U of M project was like building in a phone booth

The University of Minnesotas Amundson Hall addition allows some much-needed elbow room for the growing Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department and for a fancy electron microscope described by the U of M as the first of its kind in the world.

But the project itself didnt leave much wiggle room for construction crews, who squeezed the 40,000-square-foot addition known as the Gore Annex into a tight location at 421 Washington Ave. SE on the busy campus in Minneapolis.

If you look at the building, we are 20 feet from the next building over, said Jeff Schott, a professor in the U of Ms Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the U of Ms construction point person for the project. It was like building in a phone booth.

U of M officials led a tour of the newly completed building addition Wednesday. Construction started in March 2013.

The $30 million project included $23 million for the Gore Annex, which has two floors below ground and four above ground, and $7 million worth of improvements to the 65-year-old Amundson Hall.

A high point is the FEI Tecnai Femto ultrafast electron microscope, which will enable researchers to learn more about materials at the atomic and molecular scale. The research has applications for everything from energy and medicine to digital technologies, the U of M said.

It allows us to make movies of the materials at the atomic levels, at the time scales we need, explained David Flannigan, an assistant professor in the U of Ms Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

Research in the labs could benefit construction, health care, digital technologies and other industries, Flannigan said. Literally, there are experiments that have never been done before that we will be able to do now, he said.

The project will also allow for growth in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department, which has seen a 30 percent increase in undergraduate enrollment in recent years.

From a design and construction standpoint, the project presented some challenges, including the constrained site next to the Green Line light rail and existing buildings, and a need to avoid vibration that would throw the research activities for a loop.

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U of M project was like building in a phone booth