Derek had a good view of the new Zuckerman Research Center being built just a block away from his office in the Rockefeller Research Laboratories. Once excavation 80 feet down into the bedrock was complete, the steel structure rose quite quickly with the help of two telescoping cranes, at a rate of two floors every two weeks. The building was then shelled with it green glass exterior, and interior construction was completed from the top down. The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with interiors by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects.

The Tan Lab moved to the new building in September 2006. Thanks to great coordination by MSKCC, our chemicals were moved on Tuesday, our lab equipment moved on Wednesday, and Xuequan Lu had our first reaction up and running on Friday! The state-of-the-art laboratory supports all of the group’s chemical biology research in diversity-oriented synthesis and rational drug design.