Vannevar Bush became President of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1938, and by 1946 he commissioned a proposal aimed at defining the Biological Laboratory’s direction of research for the postwar years.

This vision was needed to raise funds for expansion and improvement. Interest in the work of the Laboratory was shown by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation.

In 1950, the Carnegie Corporation granted $100,000 to build a new assembly room sorely needed for the growing attendance at the Biological Laboratory’s Symposia, conferences, and evening lectures.

Due to the Korean War and its effect on building costs, construction was delayed and then got underway in August 1951.