Public meeting on design of OSU’s Marine Studies Building to be held Nov. 17

Oregon State University will host an informational meeting and open house on Thursday, Nov. 17, to present the schedule and design process for the interior of the new Marine Studies Building in Newport. The building is a key component of OSU’s Marine Studies Initiative (MSI). It will support marine studies research, education, and outreach and engagement conducted by OSU. The event will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the auditorium at the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor Center, 2030 S.E. Marine Science Drive, Newport. The presentation will be led by Bob Cowen, director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and Bob Zimmerman of YGH Architects. The architect’s presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. OSU is planning the construction of the Marine Studies Building, an approximate 85,000-square-foot facility within the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) campus. The building is expected to include:     Classrooms and teaching labs; Flexible, state-of-the-art research labs; Faculty offices; Facilities for visiting faculty and scholars; Meeting rooms open to the greater HMSC and Newport community; Vertical evacuation features. In addition to the opportunity to be a world-class research and teaching facility, the Marine Studies Building will demonstrate leading seismic and tsunami-resistant building design and campus improvements. In deciding the location of the building, OSU President Edward J. Ray has required that the building will be designed, engineered and constructed so that it will: Survive an associated tsunami resulting from a catastrophic natural event, such as a Cascadia Subduction Zone event, Be repairable following an L-level tsunami, Be built to provide a safe and accessible, vertical rooftop evacuation site alternative for those with impaired mobility in the event of an XXL-level tsunami, Fully serve the Hatfield Marine Science Center campus by preferred horizontal evacuation systems. The building will exceed current and soon to be updated national American Society of Certified Engineering standards for buildings in inundation zones.