The California Institute of Technology proudly celebrated the groundbreaking of its remarkable Resnick Sustainability Resource Center earlier this week. Numerous local media covered the exciting moment.
The Resnick Center will be a makerspace for scientists and a dynamic hub for critical research into the most pressing climate and sustainability challenges we face. The building is set to unite experts from across physical sciences, life sciences, and engineering disciplines in shared spaces with access to unparalleled instrumentation to advance novel climate solutions.
Numerous dignitaries were on hand to celebrate the groundbreaking. During his remarks, California Governor Gavin Newsom lauded the project and its purpose. “We’ve lost traditions, lifestyles – we lost places,” he said in reference to climate change and specifically the recent fires that have plagued California. “We cannot continue to raise generations in a world that is heating up, kids are choking up and so much of our planet is burning up. This is a moral moment, and so, we want to celebrate this moment of contribution.”
In line with the building’s sustainability mission, a soaring, timber-framed atrium will house the center’s social and collaborative spaces, and the swooping glass curtain wall flooding this multi-story space with natural light incorporates a mass timber grid shell. In the building’s core, key spaces include a biosphere engineering facility, a solar science and catalysis center, a remote sensing center, a translational science facility, teaching labs, and lecture and interactive learning spaces.
The Sustainability Resource Center’s transparent design puts “science on display,” helping spark the imagination of passersby. The building will also do more than benefit graduate students and scientists from varying disciplines and departments. The building’s second floor will be populated by undergrad classrooms and labs, and every freshman will have at least one class in the building, helping immerse them in the importance of climate action and sustainability.
Also speaking, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told those in attendance, “Every time I turn around, Caltech isn’t hitting it out of the park, Caltech is hitting it out of the universe. And, (this building), is really an incredible achievement on the part of the Caltech community.”
