Boxes are everywhere, televisions and audio visual equipment is still being installed and a lot of organizing remains to be done, but the new Kansas Wheat Innovation Center is coming together.
Offices for Kansas Wheat, the Wheat Alliance, Heartland Plant Innovations, and the Foundation for Ag in the Classroom are located in 10,000 square feet of office space on the ground level of the new building, which sits adjacent to the International Grains Program's center on the campus of Kansas State University.
The lower level offers 15,000 square feet of space for Heartland Plant Innovation's laboratories. Some of the space will be used immediately for HPI's doubled haploid labs, which have been operating out of Throckmorton Hall on the K-State campus. Some of the space will be left unfinished for future expansion of the research mission of HPI.
Offices for Kansas Wheat, the Wheat Alliance, Heartland Plant Innovations, and the Foundation for Ag in the Classroom are located in 10,000 square feet of office space on the ground level of the new building, which sits adjacent to the International Grains Program's center on the campus of Kansas State University.
Attached to the back of the building is a four-section greenhouse with state-of-the-art capabilities, including one air conditioned compartment that will enable researchers to grow wheat all year around.
The $7.5 million facility was built with $4.5 million in cash reserves from the Kansas Wheat Association, supplemented by a $3-million 10-year mortgage. Money is still being raised to fund an endowment that will provide a permanent source of funds for research.
WHEAT GROWERS ROOM
Naming rights to conference spaces within the center have helped raise money toward a research endowment for the Wheat Innovation Center. This room, which includes a test and demonstration kitchen that opens to a conference room, will be named the Wheat Growers Board Room, in honor of donations made by the members of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers.
PROUD CEO
Justin Gilpin, CEO of Kansas Wheat since 2009, said he is proud of the effort that has led to the creation of the Wheat Innovation Center. Especially exciting, he says, is the position of the research and office headquarters center adjacent to the International Grains Program offices, the Kansas Crop Improvement Alliance, the new K-State feed and flour mills, and in close proximity to the value-added extrusion center, the USDA Agricultural Research Service offices and the American Institute of Baking.
EAST ENTRANCE
A covered walkway shelters the entrance to the new Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, which shares a parking lot with the International Grains Program on the K-State campus.
SIGNAGE COMPLETE
A lighted sign lets visitors to campus locate the new Wheat Innovation Center.
STREET VIEW
This is the view from the street of the new Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, which sits on the North side of Kimball Avenue, across the street from the Bill Synder Family football stadium.
BOARD ROOM
Visitors attending events in the Wheat Growers Board Room at the new Wheat Innovation Center, will have a full wall of windows looking out on the football stadium.
NAMING HONORS
The family of former Kansas Secretary of Ag and current head of the Farm Service Agency in Kansas, Adrian Polansky, won the honor of having a conference room named for them with a generous donation toward a research endowment for the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center. The conference room also offers a bit of history in that the table around which leaders of the Kansas wheat association have gathered for decades has been refurbished and used in the room.
GENEROUS WORKROOM
A workroom offering copiers, storage and space for putting together a variety of projects is center of the building and accessible from offices on either side of the building.
DOUBLED HAPLOIDS
A primary source revenue for Heartland Plant Innovations is its fee-for-service doubled haploid laboratories, which will be moved to this space from Throckmorton Hall in the coming weeks. HPI offers doubled haploid services to K-State and several other land grant universities as well as to private companies.
NEW GREENHOUSES
Greenhouses with state-of-the-art capabilities are going on at the rear of the building. One compartment is air conditioned to enable researchers to work on growing wheat year-round.
UNUSED SPACE
Planners of the new Kansas Wheat Innovation center even took into account the future needs for new research laboratories. This area of the new center will be left unfinished to provide room for future expansion.
CHEERY GREETING
The entry lobby of the new Wheat Innovation Center offers a pleasing welcome to visitors. The opposite wall, painted in K-State purple, has been designed the "Founders Wall" and will offer recognition for donors of $5,000 or more who helped make the center a reality.