It is amazing what a $2.5 million gift can do.

For the math and science students and staff at CSU-Monterey Bay, it means a spanking new building, designed for the kind of collaborative learning that is the hallmark of the university.

For Robert and Patricia Chapman, the donors who made the building possible, it means being furthering the university's pioneering spirit.

"It is like raising a child," Patricia Chapman told a crowd of faculty, students and well-wishers that assembled on the steps of the Chapman Science Academic Center Tuesday.

A teary-eyed Chapman said she and her husband made the donation because they believe in the university's vision and its innovative style.

Robert Chapman is the former owner of Lacey's Auto Parts in Salinas. The Chapman donation is the largest given to CSUMB.

CSUMB President Peter Smith said the school's first new building, coupled with the university's recent accreditation, help the university enjoy a new prominence.

"It is a coming of age," Smith said. "The Chapman's gift symbolizes CSUMB (as an) asset to the community."

The building has also benefited from several other donations, including $250,000 from the Don Chapin Co. Inc., $50,000 from Phyllis and Herb Lister and $50,000 from Peter and Sally Smith.

Even though it is the school's first building constructed from the ground up, the facade, a hybrid of wood and brick, is emblematic of the university's nontraditional style. The interior walls of the three-story building alternate between between deep blues and browns.

Founded in 1994, the campus has grown up within and amid abandoned military buildings to accommodate students and staff.

The math and science departments were formerly housed in a building the Army used as a blood bank. The building was old and the ventilation system was raspy and unreliable.

Professors swapped horror stories with colleagues as they sized up their new digs. Suzanne Worcester, associate professor of field biology, recalled 90-degree days in her classroom.

"It was too loud and everyone in the back was asleep," Worcester said with a chortle.

The new classrooms are also more more spacious than the in the old building. There is enough space for seniors to work on Capstone projects even while classes are in session, said science professor Chris Hasegawa.

Conditions were so cramped in the old building that science students working on projects had to clear out when classes were in session.

The old building won't be abandoned altogether however as faculty will still use it for work space.

Both Chapmans are longtime Peninsula residents.

Patricia Chapman is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and a member of the CSUMB's President's Council. She is a board member of the National Steinbeck Center and has served on the Harden Foundation board since 1986.

Her grandfather started Tynan Lumber Co. in the 1870s and her father, L. Michael Tynan was one of the founders of the Salinas Valley Savings & Loan, which eventually became part of Washington Mutual.

Robert Chapman served in the Navy during World War II before attending Claremont McKenna College, where he was a member of the first graduating class in 1950.