With the Nov. 5 dedication of the new Earth and Physical Sciences Building, a new era dawned in the geophysical sciences at UC Davis.

The three-story $65.5 million building comprises 90,000 gross square feet and will provide a new home for the Department of Geology, as well as teaching laboratories and facilities for the departments of Geology, Chemistry and Physics. It will also house the mineralogy and petrology (rocks) collections, the map collection, a "clean lab" and the Keck CAVE virtual reality facility, and other research equipment.

For undergraduate teaching purposes, there are six classrooms for geology, five for physics and six for organic chemistry.

All of this was on display last Thursday when members of the campus community turned out for the building's opening ceremony. California Assemblywoman Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) joined UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, Winston Ko, dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and guests in the welcoming activities.

The building was designed by Perkins+Will, a Chicago-based commercial architect design firm, and built by Flintco, a commercial contractor headquartered in Tulsa, Okla. The project was financed primarily through state funds. The building is built to meet LEED silver standards, but has not been certified.

There is more to come.

Planning is now under way for a new GATEways (Gardens, Arts and The Environment) earth sciences garden that will link the building with the adjacent arboretum. The garden will be an outdoor geological laboratory for student learning and public outreach. The theme of the garden will be "Assembling California," after the 1993 book by John McPhee that chronicled 15 years of field trips with Eldridge Moores, an emeritus professor of geology at UC Davis.