New Animal Sciences Complex Open at Purdue
A new $60 million, 123,000 square-foot animal sciences complex is now open at Purdue. After breaking ground in November of 2015, the Hobart and Russell Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences and the Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning were dedicated yesterday on Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus. The nearly 90,000-square-foot Hobart and Russell Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences was designed for interactive and team-based learning. It also contains offices for the department’s faculty and staff, graduate students, USDA scientists, and staff of Indiana animal regulatory agencies.
Eddie Creighton, chairman of the board for Creighton Brothers, LLC in Warsaw and son of Hobart Creighton said, “On the way down here (we) came by the football stadium and the basketball (arena), and I think, ‘Man, what we spend on athletics.’ But then I got down to this building and look at it, and if you want good players and good coaches, you’ve got to have the facilities. I look around this building, and particularly the attitude of the people that are housed in it, if you want the best you’ve got to have the facilities and I think we certainly have them here.”
The 24,662-square-foot Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning includes research and teaching space for meat and protein sciences. It will also house the Boilermaker Butcher Block, a retail shop where animal sciences students learn how to tenderize, cut and age meat, in addition to sanitation and food safety practices.
Beth Ford, Chief Operating Officer for Land O’Lakes, says they need the best and brightest minds to come up with new, smart solutions to feed a growing and more prosperous world population. That’s why they’re investing in Purdue. “We need deep talent in all disciplines, but especially in ag sciences, to advance our work and to advance our purpose of feeding human progress. Purdue University serves as a critical pipeline of talent for Land O’Lakes and our members.”
Purdue President Mitch Daniels agreed with Creighton that it was time for a new facility to attract the best faculty, staff, and students. “With all our proud heritage, we needed this facility to stay of the world’s leader in the disciplines that are taught here, we think, better than anywhere else.”