The Center will provide secure research space and storage facilities for the study of newly excavated materials, and of the materials already in the collection, in preparation for their publication. The Center consists of a central, shared space for unpacking, cleaning, sorting and documenting artifacts. Five individual study areas off the central core will be assigned to active faculty projects. Other areas will be provided for graduate students who are using the collections in their doctoral research.

The Center will also house an expanded computer laboratory adapted for analysis of satellite images, geographic information systems (GIS), three dimensional modeling and computer assisted drafting (CAD) for publication.