UC Davis and Sierra Nevada College last month celebrated their plans to build the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences with a celebration at the building site on the Lake Campus of Sierra Nevada College, in Incline Village, Nev.

This event was the first public celebration of the partnership, which was announced in January. Construction of the building could begin as soon as summer of 2005.

Speakers included Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, Sierra Nevada College President Benjamin Solomon, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, and California Assembly Member Tim Leslie. Presentations and exhibits by principals and program partners included the work of researchers Charles Goldman, John Reuter and Geoff Schladow of UC Davis.

The $24 million Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences will be an international leader for science and teaching on the preservation of alpine lakes and their watersheds. The 45,000-square-foot building is intended to be a model of environmentally sound design.

It will house offices and laboratories of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and of the Desert Research Institute; exhibits and educational programs in the UC Davis Thomas J. Long Foundation Education Center; offices, laboratories and classrooms for Sierra Nevada College students; and conference space for 150 people.

In 1994, UC Davis began fund raising to build the modern research facilities that Tahoe scientists needed. Donors from around the world gave $13 million, including $2.6 million from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The Thomas J. Long Foundation gave $2 million for a public education center.

Of the $13 million raised by UC Davis, $9.5 million will go to the Tahoe Center building. The rest will fund renovations of the former Tahoe City fish hatchery, to be used as a field station to support the research and education activities of the main center at SNC.

A $725,000 appropriation for the project, proposed by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and supported by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, was approved early this year by Congress and the president. Sierra Pacific Power has committed $200,000 to the project for improved energy efficiency aspects of the design. Sierra Nevada College will raise $9.5 million, plus an endowment of $3 million. The combined $12.5 million from a single donor would qualify as a naming opportunity for the facility.