Building Teams that include designer LMN Architects are on pace to complete two new science labs at Washington State in Pullman and Eastern Washington University in Cheney by the fall of 2020.
The 80,300-sf five-story Plant Sciences Building at Washington State integrates several disciplines from the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resources. It also provides new infrastructure for the Institute of Biological Chemistry, along with labs that bring together faculty and students in plant biochemistry, pathology, horticulture, and crop-and-soil sciences into one facility.
This L-shaped building, which should be completed by October, is the fourth within a master plan for the university’s Research and Education complex, which LMN originally designed back in 2005. The new facility will be the social and interdisciplinary hub of the complex, and has been designed for flexibility to meet the university’s future needs, including an interior arrangement of modular lab spaces that can support research over time.
The exterior of the building features a high-performance concrete façade panel system clad in red-brick veneer.
At Eastern Washington University, the new 102,700-sf Interdisciplinary Science Center for physics, chemistry, biology, and geology will be connected to an existing Science Building Center by two enclosed pedestrian bridges.
The four-level Interdisciplnary Science Center at Eastern Washington University will connect with an existing Science Building Center.
Inside the building, laboratory instrument exhibits and educational displays are integrated along its central corridor walls. Outside the building, the landscape design was crafted in close collaboration between the design team and teaching faculty, and features significant local geologic specimens along site walls and native plant species arrayed among the building’s various micro-climates.
This four-level building, too, is clad with a panelized red-brick façade system, accentuated with a subtle mix of cascading glazed surfaces. Inside, labs flank either side of corridors on all floors. A lecture hall on level 1 is positioned into the building’s sloping site and forms a terminus of that level in the hillside.
Sustainable strategies include low-flow fume hoods and heat recovery pipes, rainwater harvesting, xeriscaping and inclusion of botanical and geological landscape elements that serve as teaching tools. The building is targeting LEED Gold certification.
The Plant Sciences Building’s design and construction team includes LMN Architects (architect), Coughlin Porter Lundeen (CE), Skanska USA Building (GC and CM), Berger Partnership (landscape architect), MW Consulting Engineers (MEP, lighting design), and Magnusson Klemencic Associates (SE).
The same Building Team is working on the Interdisciplinary Science Center with the exception of Lydig Construction providing GC and CM services.
Related Stories
University Buildings | Jan 15, 2024
The death of single-use university buildings
As institutions aim to improve the lives of their students and the spaces they inhabit, flexible university buildings may provide an all-in-one solution.
University Buildings | Dec 8, 2023
Yale University breaks ground on nation's largest Living Building student housing complex
A groundbreaking on Oct. 11 kicked off a project aiming to construct the largest Living Building Challenge-certified residence on a university campus. The Living Village, a 45,000 sf home for Yale University Divinity School graduate students, “will make an ecological statement about the need to build in harmony with the natural world while training students to become ‘apostles of the environment’,” according to Bruner/Cott, which is leading the design team that includes Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Andropogon Associates.
University Buildings | Dec 5, 2023
The University of Cincinnati builds its largest classroom building to serve its largest college
The University of Cincinnati’s recently completed Clifton Court Hall unifies the school’s social science programs into a multidisciplinary research and education facility. The 185,400-sf structure is the university’s largest classroom building, serving its largest college, the College of Arts and Sciences.
Products and Materials | Nov 30, 2023
Top building products for November 2023
BD+C Editors break down 15 of the top building products this month, from horizontal sliding windows to discreet indoor air infusers.
Higher Education | Nov 21, 2023
UPitt at Bradford opens new Engineering & Information Technologies Building
The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford recently opened a new engineering and information technology building that adds urgently needed lab and instructional space to the campus.
Esports Arenas | Oct 10, 2023
Modular esports arena attracts more than gamers
As the esports market continues to grow to unprecedented numbers, more facilities are being developed by universities and real estate firms each year.
Higher Education | Oct 10, 2023
Tracking the carbon footprint of higher education campuses in the era of online learning
With more effective use of their facilities, streamlining of administration, and thoughtful adoption of high-quality online learning, colleges and universities can raise enrollment by at least 30%, reducing their carbon footprint per student by 11% and lowering their cost per student by 15% with the same level of instruction and better student support.
Giants 400 | Sep 28, 2023
Top 80 University Building Engineering Firms for 2023
AECOM, Jacobs, BR+A, and Salas O'Brien head BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest university sector engineering and engineering/architecture (EA) firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue for all university/college-related buildings except student residence halls, sports/recreation facilities, laboratories, S+T-related buildings, parking facilities, and performing arts centers (revenue for those buildings are reported in their respective Giants 400 ranking).
Giants 400 | Sep 28, 2023
Top 100 University Building Construction Firms for 2023
Turner Construction, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., STO Building Group, Suffolk Construction, and Skanska USA top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest university sector contractors and construction management firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue for all university/college-related buildings except student residence halls, sports/recreation facilities, laboratories, S+T-related buildings, parking facilities, and performing arts centers (revenue for those buildings are reported in their respective Giants 400 ranking).
University Buildings | Sep 27, 2023
Top 170 University Building Architecture Firms for 2023
Gensler, CannonDesign, Page Southerland Page, SmithGroup, and Ayers Saint Gross top the ranking of the nation's largest university sector architecture and architecture/engineering (AE) firms, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.
