Construction is set to begin on the Oceans Excellence Centre at Dalhousie University, a 68,000-sq-ft complex that will house the laboratories of Douglas Wallace, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology.
The building will include a unique container bay that will hold several portable labs constructed from standard 20-foot shipping containers. This will allow Wallace and his team to work in the same laboratories out at sea as they do when they are back on shore.
The Oceans Excellence Centre will also house offices and research space for the Ocean Tracking Network, as well as several large water tanks for the Aquatron research laboratory, which is a marine and freshwater facility for university, government and industry researchers.
The four-story building is scheduled for completion in January 2013.
Image courtesy of Dalhousie University.
