Physics Building / Loomis Laboratory

The new Physics Building, built in two stages, replaced the Department of Physic's old building, now known as Mining and Metallurgy. The first $500,000 [1] stage was built from 1958-1959, [2] while the second stage was built from 1961-1962, [3] bringing the total cost of the building to $2,000,000. [4] Both stages were designed by Shaw, Metz & Dolio and Ernest Stouffer, with Mayfair Construction Company handling general contracting tasks for the first stage and Johnson, Drake, and Piper handling the second. [5]

The Physics Building was renamed Loomis Laboratory on September, 21, 1977, in honor of F. Wheeler Loomis, who had died the previous year in 1976. Loomis had served as Department Head of the Physics Department from 1929 to 1957, as the President of the American Physical Society in 1949, as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences from 1949 until his death in 1976, and Director of the Control Systems Laboratory / Coordinated Science Laboratory from 1952 until 1959. He also served in several capacities in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [6]

In the main lobby of Loomis stand two display cases near the west entrances to the building. They hold a collection of historical apparatus used in the instruction of physics over the years, put together in honor of the department's centennial celebrations by Charles F. Miller, who was a Physical Science Technical Assistant for the department from 1968 to 1996. The department had also previously donated a number of items to the Smithsonian Institute in 1974. [7]