Ellen Hu ’24
Editor-in-Chief
Construction on The Nucleus, a new addition to Keck Science Center, is underway. Establishment of the new building began in May of 2022 with the expectation that the facilities will be opened for the fall semester of 2024.
The joint $70 million project between Scripps College and Pitzer College follows 58 years of sharing the W.M. Keck Science Center with Claremont McKenna College. The center currently offers 15 majors and serves approximately 6,300 students between the three colleges.
On Sept. 30, 2022, Claremont Mckenna announced that they would depart from the cross-college science department to establish the Robert Day Sciences Center. Construction on this project is set to begin during the summer of 2023.
The Nucleus aims to address “the need for additional faculty and the expansion of classes and co-curricular offerings to meet student demand and increase the Colleges’ capacity for cutting-edge, grant-funded research,” Scripps College wrote on their webpage explaining the new project.
This initiative will add 70,000 square feet to the current science center along the border between Scripps College and Claremont McKenna College on East 9th Street. The new space will include more labs, meeting rooms, a computer lab, faculty offices, and a rooftop greenhouse.
All structural foundations for the building were completed in January and further work on the second floor of the building is currently underway. On Jan. 27 students received an email from the college acknowledging consequential construction noise.
“This may cause increased noise levels compared to normal construction activities,” the Scripps College Facilities and Auxiliary Operations team wrote in the email. “You will see concrete trucks and concrete pumps with increased quantities of workers onsite.”
Updates on the status of the science center and current plan can be accessed through the Scripps College website at https://www.scrippscollege.edu/scripps-pitzer-science-initiative/.
Image Source: Pitzer College
