Wright Laboratory of Physics

Date

1943-present

Location

110 North Professor Street

Architects/Collaborators

Edward J. Schulte (1890-1975), Cincinnati (architect)
Cleveland Construction Company (contractor)

Style

Modern adaptation of French Romanesque

History

The Physics Laboratory, renamed the Wilbur and Orville Wright Laboratory of Physics in 1948, was constructed during the Second World War of concrete with an exterior of Indiana Limestone. The reinforced concrete was a wartime building material in place of steel which was needed for the war effort. The beams at either end of the long building dropped by .004 inches by 1954, causing small cracks. The building was remodelled in 1957-58 and 1964-65. With the assistance of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the ground floor of the building was renovated in 1994 to include modern research and instructional laboratories, but the upper floors remained as they were constructed in 1942.

[Taken from Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin OH: Oberlin College, 1985).]

The 2002 Science Center, which incorporated the Wright Laboratory of Physics, renovated the remainder of the building, to include additional faculty laboratories. The physics auditorium on the second floor was renovated to seat 90, equipped with modern audiovisual equipment and capabilities. The department now uses a round, 130-seat auditorium in the new center. Video and computer connections to the observatory in Peters Hall allow live display of telescope images for the teaching of astronomy. Other new features include a seminar room, a reading room/lounge, instructional and faculty laboratories, and physical connection to the other science departments and the science library in the complex.

[Doug McInnis, "A New Day for Science," Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Winter 2003.]