Behind Lilly Hall of Life Sciences, just a few feet into the entrance of the greenhouses, there is broken glass littered among the remains of weeks of deconstruction left behind.
The greenhouses in Ranges 4 and 6 are demolished– with the plan to have a brand new, high-tech greenhouse built by July 2025. Michael Woodard, the greenhouse manager at Lilly, said the project is to update greenhouses that were built in the 1950s and remodeled in the 1970s but have not been touched since.
"We're building a new, modern facility, bringing it up to what current greenhouse standards are," Woodard said. The new structures are expected to be more high-tech and about 20,000 square feet.
The greenhouse remodeling plans are a part of the Plant Science Initiative 2.0, also known as Purdue Moves, which was first planned in early 2021. This follows Plant Science Initiative 1.0, which started in 2014, with a goal to create collaboration across the different colleges and disciplinary programs at Purdue.
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