About 55 per cent of the total laboratory area is used by the Electronics Defense Group, which carries on important research in communication engineering.
The other research activities presently housed in the Cooley Building are nuclear power development (5 rooms), development of shock mounts for tank fire control instruments (1 room), and study of blast loads on buildings (1 room).
The total number of research workers employed in the various laboratories is about 120, of whom virtually all are engaged in classified research. The major part of the building's laboratory equipment has been supplied by the federal government. The building also is the headquarters of the College of Engineering Industry Program, which is administered by Professor H. A. Ohlgren as an Institute project.
The Cooley Building, having been planned as the nucleus of a sizable research area, has two lobbies, two lounges, two conference rooms, and an auditorium, which are available for informal conferences and for meetings.
The furnishings of all the conference facilities except the auditorium were presented by various alumni, groups of alumni, and friends of the University.
In the west end of the basement is an auditorium — seating capacity 125 — which was furnished with Institute funds. It is provided with a projection booth and a large door behind the screen and blackboard area and is equipped with a public address system and a motor-operated autotransformer for control of overhead lighting. Near the entrance to the auditorium is a plaque honoring Professor A. E. White, Director of the Institute from its inception until his retirement in 1953, when he was succeeded by Professor R. G. Folsom.
To the west of the Cooley Building is the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory, constructed with some of the funds donated by alumni and friends of the University for research in peacetime applications of nuclear energy, and to the south is the Library Service and Stack Building, which serves as a storage facility for little-used library materials and also houses the University Bindery. A pedestrian tunnel is to connect the Cooley and Phoenix buildings, since some of the research activities in the two buildings will be closely related, especially after completion of the nuclear reactor, which will adjoin the Phoenix Building.
Presently under construction are the Automotive Laboratory, being built with state-appropriated funds, and four aeronautical research laboratories, for the construction of which Engineering Research Institute funds are being used. The Automotive Laboratory is a short distance north of the Cooley Building, and the aeronautics buildings, some distance northeast.
In 1921, when the Health Service was made a unit of the new Division of Hygiene and Public Health, the need for more space than that provided by the remodeled dwelling on Ingalls Street which then housed it became imperative. As a result, in July, 1922, the Health Service took over the building which had served as the Children's Ward of the old Homeopathic Hospital.
This building, which had been constructed at a cost of $32,322.41 in 1919, was erected by the Department of Buildings and Grounds and consisted of three floors approximately 40 by 70 feet, with a total area of 11,795 square feet. For about eighteen years, or until April, 1940, the Health Service occupied this building. In 1928, because a larger staff,
