The site of the future kicks off

Thanks to an 8 million euros investment by the French government and the local authorities, the new site entrance complex will include the site entrance and badge delivery, a visitors’ centre, a logistics platform/stores for the whole campus, new offices for the ESRF works committee, a major restructuring of roads and parking space as well as an upgrade and extension of the current restaurant. The contract was awarded to the Spanish company MASTER Ingeniería Arquitectura in June 2010 and the new buildings are foreseen to become a reality between mid-2012 and early 2013.

From left to right, first row: A. Merino Gonzalo, MASTER and F. Sette, ESRF director general. 2nd row: A. Merino Pons, E. Giraud (Région Rhône-Alpes), R. Wagner (ILL Director), S. Siebert (GIANT and CEA), G. Fioraso (Ville de Grenoble & La Métro). Credits: C. Argoud

Not far from the entrance, the so-called ESRF–ILL science building will be built at the same time. The building will be a hive of future projects for the large-scale instruments, housing new joint laboratories, the science library and scientific partnerships, notably the Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter. The construction of this building was awarded to the German architects Nickl & Partner in spring. This 5000 m2 building will be ready for use in September 2012. Its construction with an associated cost of 10.5 million euros has the same funding source as the new site entrance.

An artist’s impression of the Science building’s entrance. The building will be located next to the ESRF/ILL stores. Credits: Nickl & Partner.

Top image: An aerial view of the new entrance for the ESRF-ILL-EMBL site. Credits: MASTER.