As Kansas University looks to increase its research space, Baker University in Baldwin is planning a $20 million building for science teaching.

“It’s time to move forward with a new science facility,” said Bill McCollum, director of university relations. “It’s projected to house our sciences, math and physics programs for the next 50 years. It’s an exciting project.”

McCollum said Baker officials had begun the “silent” phase of a capital campaign for the building, which would be built on the south end of campus, just east of Constant Hall.

The new building would replace Mulvane Hall as Baker’s main science facility. Mulvane Hall, which was built in the late 1920s, has become outdated, he said.

“It’s a wonderful old building,” he said. “We can retrofit it to become a general classroom facility.”

McCollum said the building fund-raising would be the “cornerstone” of a capital campaign Baker is planning to coincide with its 150th birthday in 2008. With fund-raising for the newly renovated Collins Library out of the way, he said, the science building will be the next major project for Baker.

He said it likely would be two to three years before ground was broken on the facility.

“The goal is to have it completed by 2008,” he said.