Yale West Campus: A Growing Center for Work in Science and the Arts

For some time after Yale University purchased the 136 acres of office buildings, streams and woodlands that comprised the former Bayer Pharmaceutical complex in 2007, the primary occupants of West Campus were turkey, geese, deer and coyotes.

That is no longer the case. As spring takes hold in the complex on the West Haven/Orange line, the ideas about creating a new type of university campus are bearing their first fruit. From cutting-edge DNA sequencers to shuttles from New Haven, dining services and multi­disciplinary research institutes, West Campus is humming with activity. This map illustrates just how the campus is being transformed.

Welcome Center: At the gateway to the 136-acre facility, visitors can get general information about the campus and tips on how to navigate the grounds, which feature more than 20 buildings and 1.6 million square feet of office space. To book a tour of West Campus, call 203-432-5681. VIEW VIDEO OF MICHAEL DONOGHUE

Bright Horizons Childcare: Half of this building is licensed to care for 144 children ages 6 months to 5 years. The center is open to the families of Yale staff, faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students, as well as the local community. VISIT WEBSITE

The Yale Peabody Museum’s Community Education Center at West Campus: Located in the other half of the childcare building, this education and community center serves as a resource to area towns, offering programs to school classes and community organizations. Residents and students in the Greater New Haven area can take part in programs on the raptor family of birds, the geology of Connecticut and an overview of the area’s trees, among others. VIEW VIDEO | VISIT WEBSITE

New Walking Trails: Planning for the campus is designed to emphasize the beauty of the campus’s natural settings. The project to extend the current walking trails aims to improve the aesthetic and recreational value of the site.

Parking: Yale officials will be encouraging employees and visitors to use shuttle services to make the short commute from New Haven. They hope that large parking areas left by Bayer can be used for other more environmentally friendly purposes — such as the testing of experimental hybrid cars by Yale engineering students (see “Zoom Zoom” below).

WC-28, 27 and 32: These three former administration buildings have 240,000 square feet of office space. Among the possible future uses of these buildings will be as space for clinical research and administrative functions.

Oyster Creek: The creek and surrounding area is already being used to help New Haven area students learn about the environment through such programs as Project Search, part of the West Haven High School Honors Biology program, which helps track the quality and health of the creek. VISIT WEBSITE

Shuttles: Shuttle buses this spring began regularly scheduled operation Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. from New Haven. The shuttle leaves hourly from Science Hill (Lot 22), Phelps Gate and the Anlyan Center. VISIT WEBSITE

WB-27, Small Molecule Discovery Center and Chemical Biology Institute: The latest screening technology will aid scientists in this building in their search for molecules that will be the basis of new drugs. The institute will feature multidisciplinary approaches to studying synthetic biology and biosynthesis in order to understand and manipulate cellular functions. VIEW VIDEO | VISIT SMALL MOLECULE DISCOVERY CENTER WEBSITE | VISIT CHEMICAL BIOLOGY INSTITUTE WEBSITE

WB-31, High Throughput Cell Biology: This core facility features a state-of-the-art marriage of imaging, bioinformatics, automation and cell culture that will advance research of many labs inside and outside of Yale. The building will house three institutes: the Cancer Biology Institute, which will feature work of more than a dozen Yale labs focusing on cancer biology; the Microbial Diversity Institute, which will explore the largely unknown role that microbes play in life and the environment; and the Systems Biology Institute, which is dedicated to understanding the regulatory networks that are characteristic of all living organisms. VISIT WEBSITE

WB-24, The new Nanobiology Institute: This planned facility will unite scientists from engineering and biological sciences. The activity, currently under consideration, would unite scientists from many labs to explore the relationships of synthetic and living molecules at the nanoscale. VISIT WEBSITE

WB-25, Conference Center: The Grace Murray Hopper Auditorium is available for Yale meetings, conferences and events for up to 250 people. The building also houses the West Campus administration staff and a full-service video conference room that is free for use by all Yale departments and students. VISIT WEBSITE

WB-25, Dining Grab and Go: Yale Dining serves up sandwiches, salads, soups, cold drinks and healthy snacks every Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

WB-36, Yale Center for Genome Analysis: This core facility will house the latest in DNA sequencing technology, and its large data capacity will allow scientists to support research projects in a variety of fields to conduct whole genome surveys of large population groups. VISIT WEBSITE

WA-21, Arts Building: This space will house a center for the conservation and digitalization of Yale’s art collections, library holdings and natural history collections. Directors, librarians and curators in every discipline can find a common ground at West Campus, where they can share their novel ideas about the preservation, digitization and study of Yale’s priceless collections. VISIT WEBSITE

Warehouse: West Campus boasts over 600,000 square feet of warehouse space, allowing Yale to consolidate its storage needs.

Power Plant: This facility makes steam and chilled water to heat and cool the West Campus buildings. It is also used to distribute electricity to many of the buildings. All buildings are heated and cooled in an energy-efficient manner — even unoccupied buildings — to preserve their integrity. VISIT WEBSITE