Kewalo Marine Laboratory is a three-story building constructed of steel and concrete in 1971 with funds from a one-million-dollar NSF facilities grant augmented by funds from the State of Hawai'i. Total floor space in the Laboratory is 17,400 square feet, including more than 12,000 square feet devoted to offices and laboratories for 4 full-time faculty members and their research teams, as well as laboratories for visiting investigators. The current buliding maintains an excellent ocean seawater delivery system, back-up seawater system, fenced seawater-tank courtyard, auxiliary electrical plant, and modern research infrastructure.
The first floor of the Laboratory houses office space for administrative and research personnel, and three laboratories occupied by the research group headed by Dr. Martindale. A machine shop, walk-in cold room and freezer, a small lunchroom, seawater tanks, and an autoclave and dishwasher room make up the rest of the first floor.
On the second floor are a library-conference room, a common-use equipment room and cold room, as well as laboratory and office space for the research groups of Dr. Hadfield and Dr. Richmond. A visitor laboratory on the second floor is frequently occupied by scientists from outside the University of Hawai'i.
The third floor is occupied by the office and laboratory of Dr. Seaver, plus additional office and lab space for visitors. This floor also has a cold room, a supplies/storage room, and a programmable photic cycle room. A suite of rooms dedicated to microscopic imaging is also found on the third floor. The building also has a back-up electrical generator, and a system for distributing reverse-osmosis-purified water to laboratories throughout the building.
Sea Water System
Kewalo Marine Lab is equipped with a $3 million sea water system that provides researchers with high-quality sea water drawn directly from the open ocean about 1,000 feet off shore. The system operates with 2 intake pipes and pumps to ensure a constant flow of fresh seawater to four 3,000-gallon circular tanks. A back-up seawater system draws water from protected waters in a channel adjacent to the lab.
In addition, there are over 100 smaller sea tables with fresh, running seawater located around the premises, which are available for animal rearing and maintenance. All of the large laboratories on the second floor have "seawater lanais", each with 10 - 12 tanks for the maintenance of animals. These seawater facilities are used heavily by resident scientists, visitors, and other faculty and staff from the University of Hawai'i's main campus.
Kewalo Marine Lab also maintains a well-equipped 16 ft. Boston Whaler skiff used for collecting purposes. The collecting staff is knowledgeable about and skilled at obtaining local marine organisms.
Research Equipment
The Kewalo Marine Laboratory is equipped with much of the major equipment needed for modern cell and molecular biology. Some of the instruments available for use by resident scientists and visitors include ultra-, high speed, refrigerated, and micro- centrifuges; seven - 80 degree C freezers; UV/visible spectrophotometers; HPLC systems; PCR thermal cyclers; and tissue culture and bacterial incubators. A microtome for paraffin, plastic, and frozen sections is also available. The Laboratory possesses an extensive selection of equipment for protein and nucleic acid electrophoresis, a digitizing gel reader, and an automated X-ray film developer.
Kewalo Marine Laboratory also houses a sophisticated, state-of-the art imaging facility, with microscopy equipment for techniques such as polarization, phase-contrast, DIC, fluorescence and photo microscopy, and attendant video and image analysis systems. The imaging facility also maintains and operates two laser-scanning confocal microscopes – a Zeiss 510, and a recently purchased Zeiss 710.