Powell-Booth Laboratory for Computational Science

On the campus of the California Institute of Technology, a major remodeling of the building that houses most Caltech CACR staff and resources began in January 1998 and was completed in May 1999. The goals of the remodeling were to:

• create an environment that fosters multidisciplinary computational science and engineering research,
• provide support for cutting edge technology in computing and networking, and
• enable the growing CACR staff to be housed in one building.

The building was renamed the Powell-Booth Laboratory for Computational Science and was dedicated in a ceremony held April 2, 1999, featuring talks by Caltech President David Baltimore, John Seinfeld, Paul Messina, Richard Hirsh, Joel Holliday, and Arthur Golding. The new name reflects a generous grant from the Charles Lee Powell Foundation. The National Science Foundation, Caltech, and the Booth-Ferris Foundation also provided financial support for the remodeling. The original building was funded by Caltech, NSF, and the Booth-Ferris Foundation in 1963.

The first phase of the work was to create a new machine room and labs in the basement of the building while keeping the old machine room operational. The new machine room was created with state-of-the-art electrical, air conditioning, and networking. The electrical and air conditioning capacity was increased by at least 30 percent, while the actual size of the space was decreased by 30 percent. Adjacent to the machine room are visualization, collaboration, and hardware laboratories.

The architectural design of the Powell-Booth Laboratory provides for the efficient use of space as well as new areas of open space. For the first time, all CACR staff are under one roof. In the past, the staff have been spread over at least four campus buildings.

In addition, the renovated building enables universal access to a host of advanced computing, communication, and information technologies. Researchers are able to access local and distant computing resources and data from almost anywhere in the building. Each conference room is equipped with high-quality display systems and high-speed network connections. A seminar room has the highest quality display capabilities.

During remodeling, CACR offices were housed temporarily in Mosher-Jorgensen building. Upon completion of the renovation project in May 1999, the CACR staff moved into the Powell-Booth Laboratory for Computational Science .