Walters Life Sciences Building

The Walters Life Sciences Building is a 150,621-square-foot facility, located on the site of UT’s first intercollegiate athletics field (Wait Field). Work on the building was begun in January 1974, and it was completed in 1977 at a cost of $7,866,000. The building was designed by the firms of McCarty Bullock and Holsaple and Weeks and Ambrose, with design credit going to Max Robinson of McCarty Bullock and Holsaple, who subsequently became director of UT’s School of Architecture. The contractor was Tipton and Reynolds Construction. The structure was designed to match the dimensions of the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center to make them “architecturally compatible.” It was built principally as a wet-lab facility, and included an AALAC-accredited animal facility.

Well after the building’s completion, students and faculty pointed to serious deficiencies with the heating and air-conditioning systems. They also cited the elevators, which were noted for not responding to pressing a button for a floor but going to random floors and for serious vibration problems that made some laboratories unusable for their intended purpose. The design of the building—no windows in the labs, bare concrete floors, bare concrete ceilings from which hung bare pipes—was also strongly criticized. Members of the faculty presented a list of grievances to the Faculty Senate. With the contractor’s warranty on the building expiring in spring 1978, the faculty met and created a final list of deficiencies, including previous delayed and unmade repairs, and forwarded the list to the UT System Office of Facilities Planning. The board of trustees voted to name the planned building for longtime UT Trustee Herbert S. Walters in 1973.

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The following information is provided for citations.

  • Title Walters Life Sciences Building
  • Author
  • Keywords Walters Life Sciences Building
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
  • URL
  • Access Date May 14, 2025
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 20, 2018