Click the links below for siteplan images: Woods Hole Campus Proposed Woods Hole Campus Existing Oyster Pond Road Campus Proposed Oyster Pond Road Campus Existing Whitman / Quad Zone

MBL's Master Campus Site Plan:
A vision for the future

• The Woods Hole Village campus encompassing the MBL's major research, educational, conferencing, and dormitory facilities; and
• The Oyster Pond Road campus providing seasonal housing, remote parking facilities, and associated uses such as storage, laundry, and maintenance.

The MBL's Campus Master Plan is a vision for the future. It is subject to change and is entirely contingent on successful fundraising for the projects.

What improvements are needed, and what will they do for the MBL?

The MBL's Strategic Plan identified the following overall needs:

• New and renovated research lab and lab support space to support new initiatives in year-round resident research, summer/visiting research, and teaching.
• Expanded and updated classroom facilities to address anticipated growth in graduate and post-graduate level educational programs.
• New and renovated housing, conferencing, and support space to accommodate an increased volume of scientists, students, and staff on a year-round basis.
• Relief from deferred maintenance and sub-optimal conditions in the major Campus Buildings-Whitman, Lillie, Loeb, and Swope.
• Additional remote parking and more transportation to mitigate traffic congestion in the Village, particularly during the busy summer months.

Broadly, the MBL must address the need for more and improved facilities to fulfill the strategic objectives that are central to the MBL's mission. This translates into more and better research space, educational space, housing, and support to facilitate growth and improve the quality of services provided by the MBL. Some of the needs analyzed in Campus Master Plan must be met simply to ensure that existing facilities reflect contemporary space standards and the current expectations of scientists and students. Clearly, a thoughtful and well-conceived program of improvements must succeed at many levels, addressing current deficiencies, positioning the MBL to attract the best and brightest personnel, and ensuring the Laboratory's reputation for excellence far into the future.


The Woods Hole Village Campus - Program Highlights:

• The Strategic Plan has identified a need for 25,000 nsf of new lab space in the Village to satisfy the growth of year-round resident research through 2013. The Campus Master Plan study has generated a total of approximately 18,000 nsf through additions and renovations to the Lillie and Loeb Buildings. Additional resident research space can be generated through renovations to improve the efficiency of the Loeb Building.
• The design of the Whitman Building renovations and addition is nearing completion as the first piece of the Campus Master Plan to move into permitting and construction. Depending on the schedule for fundraising, the MBL anticipates a Spring 2005 construction start with occupancy in Spring 2006. This new Center for Summer and Visiting Research will add 30,000 gsf of renovated lab space, and add 18,600 gsf of new lab space to the campus. To maximize the development of potential lab space, the slope-floored Whitman auditorium will be demolished. A new 150-seat, state-of-the-art auditorium will be built as an addition to the Swope Building. A flat-floored meeting room will be constructed at Whitman as a temporary auditorium until the Swope auditorium addition is ready for occupancy. The meeting room in Whitman will then be converted to classrooms, lab space, or other functions as deemed appropriate. The existing 500-seat auditorium in the Lillie building will be enlarged and renovated to a capacity of 600 seats to accommodate the largest MBL meetings.
• A new addition to the Loeb Building will include new classroom and lab space. The new lab space will house the Biology of Parasitism program, which will move from the first floor of the Lillie Building's Crane Wing. The new educational space in Loeb will include a dedicated 25-30 seat computer instructional facility, and an additional 50-seat classroom.
• The Swope Building will be renovated and expanded to provide new dormitory housing, conference, dining, and support space. The Campus Master Plan study recommends the addition of one floor of space over the existing two-story portion of Swope to minimize the impact on existing adjacent open space.
• The Campus Master Plan study recommends removing approximately 57 existing parking from the Eel Pond frontage behind the Lillie Building. This parking capacity will be replaced by parking spaces added by constructing a parking deck on the Swope parking lot on Millfield Street. In its place, the parking lot around the Lillie building will be converted into landscaped open space and a paved walkway that will provide continuous pedestrian access from Water Street to Millfield Street. With fine views of Eel Pond, the new open space will serve as a new place for the MBL to hold functions and gatherings, as well as an informal amenity for public use. This plan to relocate parking and create new open space on the Village campus relies on the MBL's ability to construct the proposed Swope parking deck.

Oyster Pond Road Campus-Program Highlights:

The Strategic Plan has identified the need for between 110-140 new beds at the MBL over the next 10 years. Most of the increase is needed in the form of year-round, transitional housing rather than dormitory facilities. The Campus Master Plan has evaluated the existing seasonal housing and opportunities for new year-round housing on campus and has made the following recommendations:

• Renovate the existing seasonal cottages at Devil's Lane and Memorial Circle and retain them for use by the summer population (DEP regulations and agreements with the Town of Falmouth limit the density of development on these sites).
• Construct 29 townhouse units in three separate phases on three undeveloped sites on the Oyster Pond Road campus.
• Add approximately 200 new parking spaces to the remote parking facility in a combination of one-story structured parking deck and new surface parking lots. The structured deck permits the footprint area of development to be smaller and consequently have less impact on the surrounding wooded open space.
• Demolish the storage building at Memorial Circle. This will be replaced by a facility at the Technology Park site.
• Create new laundry, maintenance, housing offices and daycare center within a new community building. This facility would be improved with new lawn, parking, and site lighting. The existing tennis and paddle tennis courts will be retained.
• Build a new footbridge across Oyster Pond Road to accommodate safe pedestrian and bicycle traffic to and from the community center.
• Demolish the two existing MBL cottages on F.R. Lillie Road and replace them with additional townhouse units.