Scenes of native regional wildlife and plants wrap around the Life Sciences building. A ribbon of tiles leads to a depiction of prairie ecology, showing both common and rare species of the region. Changing in scale near the entrance, as if the viewer were walking into a magnified world, panels depict a riparian ecosystem, including aquatic insect larvae surrounding endangered native fish. Near the entrance doors, a mural panel depicting human, butterfly and flower anatomy (along with giant images of microorganisms) suggests the human nature of study and analysis that takes place within the building, bridging the worlds of whole ecosystems and laboratory research and implying the kinship among all life forms. Panels within the building continue the viewer's journey into a microscopic world (and, metaphorically, looking ever more closely and perceiving more), ending in a mural panel representing DNA.
Click the picture below to see the Riparian Ecosystem.
