Albert C. Jacobs Life Sciences Center (LSC)
Completed in 1968, the Life Sciences Center houses the biology, psychology, and neuroscience departments. The brutalist building, designed by Douglas Orr, DeCossy, Winder and Associates of New Haven, is located on the south side of campus, perpendicular to the Roy Nutt Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science Center.
Boardman Hall served as the College's Life Sciences (then-called Natural History) building for 70 years, beginning in 1900. As early as the 1930s, a new natural sciences building was a known need. President Remsen Ogilby mentioned in his 1934-1935 annual report that Boardman Hall was already “crowded from garret to cellar…we have no adequate facilities for research in either of these important departments.” Ogilby helped the College grow through a new College Plan and the construction of a number of buildings, including a Chemistry building, but he was not able to bring a new Life Sciences Building to fruition during his term.
By the mid-1960s, it was even more apparent that Boardman's early 20th century facilities, Natural History Museum, and space was not adequate for developing biology and life sciences departments and the College worried that without new facilities, enrollment in the sciences would suffer. President Albert Jacobs announced on May 26, 1964 that a new Life Sciences building was in development as part of a building campaign for Trinity's 150th anniversary in 1973, to coincide with the College's New Curriculum. The new building would house the Psychology and Biology departments, including up-to-date laboratories, equipment, greenhouses, lecture rooms and preparation spaces, offices, seminar rooms, classrooms, a 200-seat auditorium, a museum collections room and animal center.
In 1966, construction on the Jacobs Life Sciences Center began. The building was part of a larger initiative under Jacobs' presidency to expand the College's infrastructure, as well as to “increase man's knowledge” of biology and psychology.
When the building was completed in 1968, Jacobs placed a sealed box in a cornerstone. The box was not to be opened until 2073 and was filled with college memorabilia as well as a letter written by Jacobs to the future President of the College.
Sources
The Trinity Tripod, 04/09/1968.
Trinity Alumni Magazine, Spring 1968.
Trinity College Bulletin, Report of the Treasurer 1965-1966.
The Trinity Reporter, November 1964.
The Trinity Tripod: 'To Go Further and Faster' College Must Build, 10/13/1964
The Trinity Reporter, July 1964.
Trinity College Bulletin (1934-1935), President's Report.