Recent proposals to relocate or downsize UT’s Brackenridge Field Laboratory have been met with stiff resistance from faculty members who utilize the 88-acre West Austin site.
New York-based architecture firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners, hired in 2006 to redevelop UT’s 350-acre Brackenridge Tract, presented its two master-plan proposals for the West Austin site this month at a UT System Board of Regents meeting.
While the firm envisions the area as a western extension of downtown, with commercial development, residential areas and park and recreational space, both proposals require either the relocation of the field lab or a reduction in the lab’s size to 56-acres.
“If we are known as sacrificing our best academic programs for the sake of commercial real estate development, the damage to our academic reputation would be immediate and lasting,” biology professor David Hillis said.
Paul Milana, a partner in the firm, said all recommendations made to the firm regarding the tract were taken into account through a series of surveys, e-mails and door-to-door questionnaires. When the firm sat down to envision the future of the tract, it came to the conclusion that redeveloping all 350 acres would be in the best interest of the University.
“I don’t think anyone has disputed the need for a field lab,” Milana said, who recommended the University move the lab to the McKinney Roughs or a similar site. “It was never our intention to eliminate it.”
Established in 1967 as a center for biodiversity research in Texas, the field lab is used by an average of 15 faculty, more than 20 graduate students, and 200 to 300 undergraduate students each year. It provides interactive field courses for students in the biology department, as well as classes for archeology, geology, art and architecture students.
“Just as the RTF program needs practical outlets for students to get hands-on experience, so too do biology students need hands-on opportunities to learn how to do biology,” Hillis said. “Biology is the university’s largest undergraduate major, and the field lab is critical for many of our classes.”
Lawrence Gilbert, the field lab’s director, said he thinks the University must retain the lab because of the value in having a field lab so close to campus.
“You can get here between classes,” he said. “You can run courses out here and have students help with research projects. From a teaching point of view, it gives students an experience and a type of education that really gives UT a leg up.”
Robert Jansen, an integrative biology professor, said the lab is valuable because of its proximity to the city, which allows researchers to study the effects of urbanization in and around the site.
“We have a 40-year history of what exactly has gotten into that site,” he said. “If you move the lab somewhere else, you lose that [information] forever.”
The firm’s final report will be submitted to the UT regents by early August. This report will detail the proposed development of the tract and discuss changes to traffic and utilities in the area, said Anthony de Bruyn, UT System spokesperson.
Major changes to the tract, including the possible relocation of the field lab, will not be seen until 2019, should the UT regents accept one of the firm’s proposals.
“Some people believe [the lab] is too valuable to leave like it is,” Gilbert said. “I believe it’s too valuable not to leave it like it is.”
