Division of the Physical Sciences

Center for Physical and Computational Sciences: Building Progress

Project Description

The Physical Sciences/Molecular Engineering Building (PS/ME) will be constructed on the site created by demolishing the existing Research Institute and Low Temperature Buildings located between 56th and 57th streets on Ellis Avenue on the University of Chicago Campus. The current design concept proposes a 259,000 GSF building with a basement and sub-basement and five floors above grade including one shell space floor. The Physical Sciences area of the building will have offices, conference rooms, and laboratories for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Studies, and the Enrico Fermi Institute. The Molecular Engineering area will house offices, conference rooms, clean rooms and specialized laboratories and imaging facilities.

Exterior work includes landscaping, paving, lighting and security for the new “Science Quadrangle” in the open interstitial space to the west of the New PS/ME Building. Steam and chilled water will be provided through new direct buried lines from the existing vault east of the new West Campus Combined Utility Plant.

The Programmatic plan of the PS/ME Building provides for a mix of labs, core facilities, and collaboration spaces with distinct zones for Physical Sciences and Molecular Engineering. Sustainability and durability goals plus the desire to display the nature of the research conducted within the building will have a significant impact on the design of the Building. The clean rooms and high performance imaging laboratories will be located in the basement and sub-basement floors and standard laboratories will be located on the upper floors. Acoustical and electromagnetic shielded and vibration sensitive labs will be provided for both the PSD and ME Departments in the sub-basement.

The Molecular Engineering clean rooms will be designed to support research and development of microelectromechanical systems(MEMS), sensors, and diverse nanomaterials using small substrates and wafer pieces with process capability up to 150mm or 200mm round substrates. Imaging areas will include scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, focused ion beam and other imaging and processing techniques necessary to evaluate nanomaterials and devices. Preparation and assembly areas will also be provided.

The clean room will include areas of ISO 14644-1 Class 5 (Class 100) and Class 6 (Class 1000) space to accommodate insulator, semiconductor and metal deposition, wet and dry etch, thermal processes and devices at a variety of scale and sizes on a variety of substrates. The imaging area will include individual electron microscope rooms with acoustical and electromagnetic and radio frequency shielding and vibration performance to NIST -A specifications.

Comments and questions about the Physical Sciences/Molecular Engineering Building should be sent to