Construction crews were supposed to be mainly finished on the SeaLife Center by Feb. 5. But the detail work and complexity proved overwhelming. By the end of March, the center staff began moving in while construction still was going on. With the Saturday opening date approaching, they just worked around the clutter, Sundberg said. The SeaLife Center has been a juggling act from the beginning, said its architect, Tom Livingston, of Livingston Slone Architects of Anchorage.
Architects know how to design research labs, and they can plan visitor centers.
But blending the two in one facility proved to be a challenge, Livingston said. The result is a space in which researchers' offices open into public hallways. Visitors will be able to look directly into a laboratory. Some have compared it to a live version of Discovery Channel. This is a dream'' he said.