By Steve Biehn
As printed in The Daily Ardmoreite, October 17, 2007.

Oklahoma City architect Bruce Bockus represented Bockus Payne Associates Architects at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation's Fall Open House and campus dedication Tuesday. His firm designed the new administration building.

"They wanted a world-class front door for a world-class research facility," he said.

The red and tan stone structure is angled toward Ardmore, in contrast to the other buildings on campus which were built on a north-south grid. The look combines both the traditional and contemporary and is open and welcoming.

"The red is a reflection of the rest of the campus," he said. "The lighter colored stone reflects a lot of the outcroppings around Ardmore and the Arbuckle Mountains to the north."

The open house celebrated the conclusion of a major campus construction project during which the foundation expanded its greenhouse facilities, built laboratories and a utility services center and added the new administration building.

"We view this as sharing our home with our Ardmore family," said President and CEO Michael Cawley during a brief dedication ceremony. "In the final analysis this evening is not about buildings. It's about people."

The Noble Foundation employs 325 full-time employees from 28 countries.

"We have many employees from India and China," said Director of Human Resources Teal Pemberton. "One of our newest employees is from Madagascar."

Visitors toured all three floors of the administration building. Communications, guest services, human resources and the safety departments are housed on the first floor. The president's office and the public relations, legal, granting and accounting departments are on the second floor. And the publication's department, computer server room and the utility services tunnel are downstairs.

More than 1,200 linear feet of tunnels link each of the new buildings on campus. The brightly lit tunnels are high enough to comfortably walk through and wide enough for maintenance vehicles.

Visitors also had an opportunity to tour campus research facilities and the greenhouse, which at about 47,000 square feet, is one of the largest research greenhouses in the nation. Still, the focal point of the seven-year expansion project is the new administration building.

Bockus said the Noble Foundation Board of Trustees wanted a building that offered a sense of quality, strength and permanence. And how would he rate the final product?

"I'd love to come to work here."

This article appeared in The Daily Ardmoreite, www.ardmoreite.com, on October 17, 2007.