Nov 5, 2020

CannonDesign, (Towson University, New Science Complex) Towson University has seen rapid growth over the past two decades and has been looking to expand its research in the sciences for some time. The School’s Fisher College of Science and Mathematics was housed in a campus building — Smith Hall — built more than 50 years ago when the entire university had just 3,537 students. Today, Fisher College has almost 5,000 students by itself. In 2018, the university broke ground on its $150 million, 320,000-square-foot science complex that’s being built along York Road, south of the campus’ Stephens Hall. The new structure will include updated infrastructure that can support modern science teaching methods. The architecture firm CannonDesign designed the project, which when opened this fall will be the university’s largest academic building on campus. The project includes 50 teaching laboratories, 30 research laboratories, 10 collaborative student spaces, eight lecture halls and an outdoor classroom that leads into the Glen Arboretum. The site will be home to Towson’s biology, physics, astronomy, geosciences, chemistry, science education and environmental sciences departments. CannonDesign’s design goal is to maximize the integration between teaching and research, and spark collaboration between multidisciplinary programs. This is done by combining the instructional, research and office elements from each department to establish “collaborative neighborhoods” throughout the building. Towson predicts that more than 10,000 students will take classes in the complex.