Lauralton Hall celebrates its new labs

Posted by: Debbie Bowley on Fri, 26 October 2007 21:26:31

By Bill McDonald (October 26, 2007)
©2007CONNECTICUT POST (Used with permission)

MILFORD - For students and faculty at Lauralton Hall, it's hard to believe everything will be ready by Monday.

A building wing at the grades 9-12, private girls’ school on High Street has been gutted and renovated to take on four new floors of new science classrooms. Two upgraded art studios are also on the second floor as part of the $2.2 million project. 

"My space has increased almost twice the size that it originally was," said Science Department chairman Theresa Napolitano, looking over the third-floor physics room Thursday.

Workers were clearing away building equipment and wiping sawdust off surfaces.

Teachers are scheduled to move their own equipment into the new rooms today, in time for Sunday's open house for prospective students, which runs from noon to 3 p.m. Teaching will start in the new facilities Monday.

All science rooms were on the second floor along with the art studios. Art studios are staying on the second floor, but the science rooms have been expanded. Each science room now allows laboratory work on one side and lectures on the other.

School President Barbara C. Griffin said the $2.2 million project is part of the first of three phases of a multi-year capital improvement plan.

The Phase One project also involves upgrading electrical and fire codes along with handicapped access in the wing built in 1917.

Several wings have been added around the original 1864 Pond-Taylor mansion that anchors the school.

"The science labs are the biggest improvement," Griffin said. "Before this, all the science labs were on the second floor and hadn't been changed in 50 years. Now we can have more state-of-the-art equipment and more teaching space for the best curriculum."

Along with the standard equipment like Bunsen burners and microscopes, Napolitano said, the spacey new labs will include advanced scientific instruments, such as a chromatographer that can show the chemical composition of any liquid such as pond water, juice or saliva.

Napolitano noted the third floor will be devoted entirely to physics, with biology and oceanography on the second floor, anatomy and physiology on the first floor, and chemistry in the basement.

Two Lauralton students got an early peek at the new science rooms Thursday.

"This is the first time I've seen the labs, and the biggest change is the size," said Colleen Clark, a senior from Westport who wants to major in biomedical or chemical engineering in college. "I'm glad I'll have one more year to use them."

Fiona Strain, a junior from Fairfield, is taking two science courses as part of her studies this year.

"I've already taken courses in the old lab. Now we won't feel so squished," she said.

Napolitano believed the new facilities would foster a bigger interest in science. She noted 90 percent of the senior class was taking a science course this year, even though they were not required to.

"We're going to make sure they have everything they need," she said. "They have the energy to do it, and we want to give them the opportunity to excel."