Few undergraduate institutions can match the resources and facilities Reed provides to its students, which include a 630,000-volume library, an 80,000-square-foot Performing Arts Building, and the only nuclear research reactor in the US operated primarily by undergraduates.
The Nuclear Research Reactor
Reed is the only liberal arts college in the world with a nuclear research reactor. Run primarily by undergraduate students licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the reactor provides students and faculty with a neutron source to perform scientific research in biology, chemistry, and physics; it has also been used for research in archaeology and art history.
The Art Gallery
The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery hosts four major exhibitions a year and is home to the college’s permanent art collection. Recent featured artists include Kara Walker (More and Less) and Jamie Isenstein (Will Return). A new print and drawings study room, to be completed in 2015, is currently underway, funded by a grant from the Ford Family Foundation. Reed students intern at the gallery and work as educators in the gallery’s K–12 visual arts education outreach initiative serving Portland Public Schools.
Eric V. Hauser Memorial Library
The library is the academic heart of Reed's campus. Home to over 630,000 volumes, including a copy of every Reed senior thesis ever written, the library includes the Reed archives, special collections, an instructional media center, and a visual resources collection.
Performing Arts Building
Completed in 2013, Reed’s Performing Arts Building includes a 99-seat black box theatre, a 180-seat studio theatre, a dance studio with a sprung wood floor, an airy, sunlit atrium, a technology center, a multimedia library, an eco roof that collects rainwater, and a plethora of windows and skylights to make use of natural light.
Sciences
In 2001, Reed completed a $9.7 million renovation of the biology building. Each of the physical science departments has its own classrooms, laboratories, and instrumentation for student and faculty research. One notable resource is the Brehm Biodiversity Center, which houses the biology department's herbarium, a library of government documents and maps related to Pacific Northwest natural history, and computer workstations for ecological modeling, data analysis, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Reed's Public Policy Workshop, a 24-hour computer facility designed for social science work, is administered by the political science, economics, and sociology departments.