Summer Groundbreaking Sets Stage for New Cici & Hyatt Brown Hall for Health & Innovation

This summer, Stetson University will break ground on the new Cici & Hyatt Brown Hall for Health & Innovation, located in Deland, Florida. The end result will be a 120,000-square-foot science complex for students studying the health sciences, environmental sciences and other fields. The building is named for longtime trustees and supporters Hyatt and Cici Brown, who donated $18 million to the project in 2018.

At just over 40,000 square feet, the building will connect to Sage Hall Science Center – currently 81,000 square feet – through glass-enclosed walkways and is scheduled for completion by the fall 2022 semester. In addition to new construction, Stetson will renovate and update portions of Sage Hall beginning this month. The Sage Hall project is expected to be completed before students return in August for the Fall 2021 semester.

The total size of the project is more than 120,000 square feet, including both Brown Hall and Sage Hall. Williams Construction Company will handle both the construction and renovation projects. Harvard Jolly Architecture and Kahler Slater are the architects for the Brown Hall project. The architectural firm for Sage Hall’s renovation is Lord Aeck Sargent.

Renovations to Sage Hall will include a new cluster of research labs consisting of four different research areas to include cell tissue culture research, as well as molecular and microscopy research. The vertebrate anatomy teaching lab will house an Anatomage Table, a fully segmented, real-human 3D anatomy system. Plans also include adding more formal and informal collaboration spaces for students and closing in a second floor, 1,200-square-foot balcony. Changes to Sage Hall will require upgrading the building’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure to support the demands of the new research environments.

New flexible and transparent active learning classrooms, a play therapy room, wet teaching labs, an environmental field studies mud room, a SMART lab and research pods will enable students to work and learn in a variety of educational settings. The new teaching kitchen, teaching/community garden and greenhouse will support the Sustainable Food Systems academic program, interdisciplinary learning and Stetson’s larger community-engagement efforts. The building also will be home to the new Stetson Center for Optimal Health Across the Lifespan, a collaborative group consisting of Counselor Education, Health Science, Psychology and Public Health departments.