We broke ground on our long-awaited new laboratory building this morning. This is actually pretty exciting. The $5 million, 11,000 square foot facility will provide us some much-needed space to expand our research opportunities. Currently, we really can’t expand much because we don’t have any lab space to put new scientists.

This will also allow us to continue to grow a research center into coastal environmental health. We are seeing the effects of the growing human population on Georgia’s coast but no one knows where it is going. There are many other parts of the US and the world where human impact has drastically changed the coastal environment. (Most of Europe, Chesapeake Bay, the northern Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River and others areas.) Coastal Georgia has lagged behind many other coastal areas and in this case, that is good. We would like to help keep the Georgia coastal environment something everyone can continue to enjoy and be proud of.

The new building, designed by the Lord, Aeck & Sargent architectural firm out of Atlanta has been designed to be environmentally and energy friendly. We expect it will meet the requirements for certification under the LEED Green Building Program.

The building is expected to be completed sometime in mid-2009.

For more information and pictures, check out the Skidaway Institute Web site.