Cunningham Hall will soon be relocated to make room for a new molecular engineering building, for which construction is set to begin in December of 2009.

Cunningham, which houses the Women’s Center, is located on the north end of campus on Stevens Way.

“Because of the size and configuration of the molecular engineering building being designed on the site, … it has been recommended that a new location be found for Cunningham Hall,” wrote UW Provost Phyllis Wise in a letter to the Cunningham Hall selection committee, which was formed to suggest sites for the building. “Cunningham Hall is a culturally and historically significant building that will celebrate its centennial in 2009.”

Cunningham Hall was originally built in 1909 for the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exhibition as a place for women. It is not on a national historic registry, but the University considers it to be historic.

The molecular engineering building will be built on Cunningham’s site because it needs to be near other engineering buildings and related science programs. Due to sensitive lab equipment, it needs to be in an area with low vibration and electromagnetic interference, said Ruth Johnston, the chair of the site selection committee and associate vice president of the Office of Strategy Management of UW Finance and Facilities.

Other potential sites were ruled out due to close proximity to main streets or the future Sound Transit route extension that is planned to go across north campus.

Johnston said there was talk of leaving Cunningham where it is and building the new molecular engineering building behind it. But Cunningham, which is a small house, would be dwarfed by the new building. There was also worry that the Women’s Center and other offices in Cunningham would be too disturbed by the noise of construction during two phases of building.

The site selection committee includes representatives from the Women’s Center, the Capital Projects Office, students and others. The committee must submit its preliminary recommendations for site options to Wise by June 30.

The list of criteria being used to determine potential sites for Cunningham includes accessibility to public transportation, a central location on campus and surroundings that fit the building.

“You wouldn’t want to plop it down next to something that would look really bad, so the aesthetics issue is there,” Johnston said.

Amy Piedalue, the Women’s Center administrator, said the people in the Women’s Center are generally OK with the move. She and other members of the center have gone to committee meetings and are excited about finding a place on campus that is more centrally located and less noisy than the highly trafficked Stevens Way.

Johnston said she is happy that the Women’s Center is getting involved in site selection. She said she would like to get input from the UW community, including students and staff, after the site suggestions have been submitted on June 30.