Look inside Delaware Valley College’s new $15M life sciences building

Delaware Valley College‘s 1,700 undergraduates now have a new hub for studying life sciences.

The Doylestown, Pa. college recently opened a $15 million, 38,000 square-foot building that has labs, classrooms and a 450-person auditorium, according to a college spokeswoman.

The 658 students in Delaware Valley College’s School of Life and Physical Sciences make up about 39 percent of its entire student body. The two most popular majors in that school are Small Animal Science and Conservation and Wildlife, according to data from the college.

Life sciences represents 15 percent of the Philadelphia region’s economy, according to a Select Greater Philadelphia report. That number makes the region one of the top areas in the country for the industry, second only to Boston, said Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners‘ Anthony Green. Still, the region has been hit hard by mergers and other changes in the industry: roughly 6,000 jobs were lost from 2006 to 2012. In response, some organizations have launched efforts to keep life sciences talent from fleeing the area.

Below, see inside the new building.