The Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement will unite researchers in precision measurement, quantum information and the detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time.
Caltech will soon be home to one of the world’s most advanced hubs for studying quantum science and technology. The groundbreaking ceremony for the HOK-designed Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement took place earlier this month with the building scheduled to open in 2025.
“The Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement will bring together researchers from across the Caltech campus—astronomers, biologists, chemists, computer scientists, engineers, physicists—united by their passion to understand the inner workings of nature,” said Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum. “In state-of-the-art laboratories and open, interactive spaces, they will develop powerful new quantum devices and educate the next generation of leaders in quantum science and technology.”
The four-story building will include research offices, meeting rooms and collaboration zones with laboratories located on the basement level to control for noise and vibration.
HOK’s preliminary design features a transparent facade inflected inward on its south and west sides to suggest a prism or the bending of spacetime, an allusion to research that will take place in the building. The building’s street-facing south side will feature collaboration areas with offices in quieter sections of the interior.
Parts of the ground floor will be recessed to give space to lush plantings and outdoor mingling areas. Glass panel doors and a breezeway, connecting to an adjacent seminar room, will enable indoor-outdoor flow.
Funding for the building came from Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg, an anonymous gift and a grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. The building is targeting LEED Gold certification for sustainable design. It will stand adjacent to the Ronald and Maxine Linde Hall of Mathematics and Physics near the primary southern entry to the campus.