Hurricane-damaged lab established in 1899 will be rebuilt on NC island, NOAA says
A cryptic building on a North Carolina island that served for decades as a government laboratory is going to be rebuilt after suffering extensive hurricane damage in 2024, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Known as the Beaufort Laboratory, the facility shares 24-acre Pivers Island with Duke University’s Marine Laboratory.
“Established in 1899, the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory is the nation’s second-oldest federal marine science laboratory, predating NOAA by more than 70 years,” NOAA said in an Aug. 27 news release.
“Following a routine inspection, NOAA determined the laboratory sustained foundational damage that made building occupancy unsafe. The new facility will be built above the floodplain and designed to withstand storm and flooding events.”
The building was 62 years old, and housed the majority of lab space on the campus, as well as offices for half of the staff, officials said.
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Construction on the new building is expected to begin in 2027, and will be paid for with $64 million from the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, NOAA said.
“For more than a century, the dedicated experts at NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory have produced world-class science,” NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs said in the release. “This state-of-the-art facility, located within the country’s second-largest estuary and adjacent to the Gulf Stream, will enable NOAA to continue its groundbreaking research.”
The Beaufort Laboratory started as a field station for the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1899. The station moved to nearby Pivers Island in 1902 and was made part of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science in 1999, NOAA says.
It is also home to the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve, officials said.
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Beaufort is about a 155-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh.
