Introduction[edit]

Russell Sage Laboratory, otherwise known to students and faculty as 'Sage Lab', was opened in 1909. Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, known as Olivia Sage, was the second wife of industrialist Russell Sage. At his death in 1906, she inherited a fortune estimated at more than $63,000,000, to be used at her discretion. She gave RPI $1,000,000 as a memorial to her husband. The building was named after Russell Sage who, prior to his death, had been on the board of trustees at RPI. $300,000 of this money was set aside for building a lab that would be used for the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering departments, which had just been introduced at the school.

Early Days[edit]

Sage Lab began construction in 1907 and was officially opened and dedicated on June 15th 1909[5], it initially cost $405,000, around $12 million in today's money. The building was designed by Lawlor & Haase and was constructed of Harvard brick with limestone trimmings. It included 3 main sections: the east wing for the electrical engineering department, the west wing for the mechanical engineering department, and the in-between for use by both departments.

The middle section contained a large lecture hall, seating up to 400 people, which is still there today and many students have class in. It also contained a large drawing room, a reference library, a museum, a janitor's quarters, and a laboratory which contained nearly 600,000 pounds of equipment designed to test construction materials.

The mechanical engineering wing included five levels. The basement and subbasement contained several labs including a steam engine lab, a hydraulic lab, and a gas engine and refrigerator lab, as well as a blower room. The first floor included 2 private labs for department staff and space for testing various apparatuses. The second and third floors were set up the same, each including three topic rooms, a lecture room, a drawing room, and two offices.[6]

The electrical engineering wing consisted of only four stories. its basement level had a dynamo lab, electrochemical rooms, a generating room, a blueprint and photographic room, and an instrument shop. The first floor had two lecture rooms, a topic room, the department office, and a private lab. The second floor contained several labs as well as an instrument calibration room, and two research rooms. The third and final floor had a physics lab, rooms for doing physical research, and a drawing room.[6]

The resources Sage Laboratories offered allowed for engineering students to get hands-on experience. The first degrees for Electrical and Mechanical engineering were given out in 1911, 9 students and 3 students, respectively, thanks to the Sage Lab.

Expansion[edit]

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute only had 485 students when the building was funded in 1907. But RPI continued to grow and because of this growth, Sage Lab also had to grow. The Sage Annex was a four story addition located northeast of the east wing and was began in April, 1923 for a cost of 235,000, or about $4 million today.[7] This addition was built to expand the Electrical Engineering department and featured many electrical labs and large lecture halls, as well as a top floor dedicated entirely to electrochemistry and electrometallurgy.[11] Despite the original contract planning on the building being finished within eight months[8], the new section of the building was not finished until May, 1924 and was not used by students and faculty until September 1924. [9] Upon the completion of the structure, some students expressed disappointment, stating in an article of The Polytechnic from May, 1923 that they did not like the location of the addition, and that they thought the green paint that was chosen did not match the rest of the structure.[10]

Modern Day[edit]

Sage lab was renovated in 1985 and currently is the home to the school of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). HASS is home to the Department of Arts, Economics, Cognitive Science, Communication and Media, and Science and Technology Studies, along with an award-winning program in Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences. Russell Sage Laboratory houses a writing center, multimedia computer labs, and video production and sound editing equipment.

Centers and Laboratories[edit]

There are various centers and labs focusing on arts, cognitive science, communication and design, economics, games simulations and art sciences, and science and technology studies across RPI's campus. Some of the labs and centers dedicated to these disciplines inside Russell Sage Labs are listed below.

Corridor of Creativity - Located in the Sage Labs building, the Corridor of Creativity helps students take their projects from ideation to reality. Comprised of multiple spaces - the Digital Fabrication Lab, Metal Shop, Motion Capture Studio, Sculpture Studio, and Wood Shop - students, with the mentoring of labs' staff, take their lessons out of the classroom and create real world, functional prototypes.

Sculpture Studio — The sculpture studio is used for students enrolled in sculpture courses and lab sessions. The studio is outfitted with a variety of sculpture stands, tools, and raw materials for the creation of unique art pieces.

VAST Studio — VAST (Visualization, Animation, Simulation Technology) Studio is an advanced digital imaging and animation lab, consisting of 20 animation and game development workstations equipped with dual monitors.

Burt Swersey Inventor’s Studio — This studio has flexible student workstations, a conference and media presentation area where whiteboard notes can be transferred to digital form, areas for wireless network access and printing, and a small workshop with basic hand and electronic tools. This room has been renovated to accommodate larger class sizes and has been equipped for multimedia presentations.

Digital Imaging and Graphics Studio — This facility is set up to support high performance scanning, printing, drafting, and some video editing via Macintosh workstations for undergraduate courses, special lectures, and other special events.