Research is one of the key elements to get tenure. If you're going to do top-notch research, you need a lab that can support it.
Right now, what you've got is a lot of dreams and a half-set-up room.
All professors' labs are on the third floor. Few students come to the top floor of Carter Hall. The ones that do make the climb are either studying pattern magic or have been misled by senior students about there being a pool on the roof.
You climb the stairs two at a time. Signs adorn the stairwell warning about pending asbestos abatement, the better to keep students away. You don't worry. There is asbestos, of course, but it's kept in check with patterns etched into the floor tiles.
Hopefully the practitioners who made them wore protective gear.
Your lab is nestled at the end of the third-floor hallway. Since no cleaning crews are allowed in your lab, you were allowed to choose how to pass through the patterns that lock the room.