More than 100 faculty, students, Marine Lab Advisory Board members and distinguished guests joined Dean William Schlesinger and Dr. , director of the , to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Marine Lab’s new $1.5 million Ocean Science Teaching Center on April 24 at the Beaufort campus.

The 5,000-square-foot center, to be located at the point of Pivers Island, will be the first new academic building constructed on the Beaufort campus in 30 years, and the Marine Lab’s first totally “green” building, designed to the highest standards for energy and environmental efficiency adopted by the U.S. Green Building Council. It will house a teaching laboratory; a televideo-capable lecture hall for team teaching and distance education; interpretive educational displays; and spaces for social interactions.

When completed in fall 2005, it will greatly expand the Marine Lab’s teaching capacity and enhance its capabilities for public outreach and education.

A $2.3 million gift from naming donors Randy Repass, chairman of West Marine Inc., and his wife Sally-Christine Rodgers, to Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences helped fund the center and create a new University Professorship in Marine Conservation Technology at the Marine Lab.

Repass and Rodgers were honored for their support of the Nicholas School at a dinner at the Marine Lab on Friday, April 23, as were longtime Marine Lab friends and supporters Charles and Bernard Blanchard.

Prior to the groundbreaking on Saturday, architect Frank Harmon led a panel discussion on “green” buildings and answered questions about the preliminary design of the new center from a crowd of about 60 faculty members, board members, students and local citizens.

At the groundbreaking ceremony itself, ten Naming or Leadership donors joined Schlesinger and Orbach in turning the first dirt for the new center. They were: Randy Repass, Sally-Christine Rodgers and their son, Kent-Harris Repass; Howard Hardesty; Carolyn Thomas and her granddaughter Margaret Wilbanks; Richard Seale; Albert Oettinger; Mrs. Alton B. Smith; and Robert Hardy. Two donors, Bob Schwartz and the Wade Family, were unable to attend.

A grant from the Wallace Genetic Foundation will make it possible to build the new Ocean Sciences Teaching Center to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards. In accordance with LEED, the center will incorporate green technologies such as solar and geothermal energy, tidal and wind power, and sustainable materials such as bamboo paneling and concrete made from fly ash.