The University of Utah last month broke ground on a $130 million interdisciplinary research facility, the first of four buildings that will create a new Interdisciplinary Quadrangle planned to attract top faculty researchers and fuel Utah's economic development activity. Designed to represent a dialog between contemporary science and the ancient imagery of regional Native American structures, the four-story, 200,000-sf James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building will be clad in locally mined sandstone and glass curtain wall.
Lord, Aeck & Sargent's Atlanta office, in association with Prescott Muir Architects of Salt Lake City, designed the facility to meet LEED Gold certification. Extensive daylighting, energy recovery, and evaporative cooling will help reduce energy use by at least 40% from current laboratory code requirements. Completion: fall 2011.
