Building for the future

WHOI’s Bigelow Lab on Water St. in Woods Hole, Mass., was WHOI’s first building and is named for the Institution’s first director, Henry Bryant Bigelow. The original plans called for “a brick building, 135 feet long and 50 feet wide, of four stories and a basement, containing laboratories and research rooms to accommodate 50, chart and reading rooms, refrigerating system and offices.” In March 1930, Boston architects Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbott presented this concept drawing. Construction began in July, and the building was ready for occupancy the following summer. (Illustration by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbott for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)