Rising from the slope of a large bluff on the foothills of Utah’s imposing Wasatch Mountains, Brigham Young University’s new Life Sciences Building reveals the inspiration of its remarkable setting.
Multiple facets and elevations climb dramatically as if shaped by the same tectonic and erosional forces that have created massive escarpments and deeply incised canyons on the surrounding landscape. From inside, the expansive windows reveal that landscape while flooding learning, meeting and research spaces with natural light.
It’s a perfect metaphor for the College of Life Science’s mission to reveal the natural world to the human intellect.
This video gives a good sense of all the building has to offer. The camera “flies” through varied interior spaces – including teaching and research labs, auditoriums, corridors and common areas, a rooftop greenhouse and a massive central atrium. Exterior shots show how the complexly terraced profile echoes the mountainous landscape overlooking the BYU campus. From both inside and outside the building, you can see a prominent “spine” rising in stages through the center of the building, much like a ridgeline defining the center of a mountain’s mass.
Architectural Nexus, the firm selected to design the building, asked LCG Façades to get involved in the project early, providing design engineering expertise for the glass curtain wall and metal panel systems that would serve as the building envelope.
Ted Derby, business development manager at LCG Façades, says that a strong, lightweight cladding material was needed to meet the building’s seismic requirements: The massive Wasatch Fault that created the rugged setting is still active today. At the same time, a pressure-equalized rainscreen was required due to Utah’s adoption of the 2012 IBC Building Code.
To meet these needs, LCG Façades designed its exclusive SL-2200 rainscreen system and chose ALPOLIC® aluminum composite materials, fabricated at LCG’s 40,000 square-foot facility in Salt Lake City.
One of the key factors in achieving the project’s budgetary and quality goals, Derby says, was that “We could control most of the materials that were going on the job through our fabrication facility that allows us to fabricate curtain wall systems as well as metal composite panel systems.”
The central “spine” towers above like an alpine peak.
ALPOLIC® materials are most visible on the building’s “spine,” rising in a stepped fashion to tower above lower elevations on either side. Here, panels finished in a silver mica evoke the great blue limestone formation that caps the spine of the Wasatch Mountains. The same fire-retardant ACM panels in a custom blue mica bring hues of a summer sky to window openings and other reveals.
If you can’t be hiking or skiing the Wasatch, studying their flora and fauna in this evocative building may be the next best thing. In the new BYU Life Sciences Building, ALPOLIC® materials are truly helping to do nature proud.
Contact Information:
Phone Number: 1.800.422.7270
Fax Number: 757.436.1896
Email: info@ALPOLIC.com
Website: www.alpolic-americas.com
Related Stories
Building Materials | Apr 14, 2015
French firm proposes sand and bacteria as building material in the Sahara
Deserts are already abundant with sand, so why not construct buildings out of it? This was the thought behind Flohara, a collection of shelters developed by Paris-based XTU Architects.
Sponsored | Windows and Doors | Apr 14, 2015
Energy Retrofits: Getting the Whole Picture on Energy Analysis
Modular Building | Mar 10, 2015
Must see: 57-story modular skyscraper was completed in 19 days
After erecting the mega prefab tower in Changsha, China, modular builder BSB stated, “three floors in a day is China’s new normal.”
Sponsored | Metals | Mar 10, 2015
Metal Building Systems: A Rising Star in the Market
A new report by the Metal Building Manufacturer's Association explains the entity's efforts in refining and extending metal building systems as a construction choice.
Building Materials | Feb 19, 2015
Prices for construction materials fall in January, following plummet of oil prices
The decline in oil and petroleum prices finally showed up in the produce price index data, according to ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.
Steel Buildings | Feb 10, 2015
Korean researchers discover 'super steel'
The new alloy makes steel as strong as titanium.
| Dec 29, 2014
From Ag waste to organic brick: Corn stalks reused to make construction materials [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Ecovative Design applies its cradle-to-cradle process to produce 10,000 organic bricks used to build a three-tower structure in Long Island City, N.Y. The demonstration project was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 28, 2014
New trends in ceiling designs and materials [AIA course]
A broad array of new and improved ceiling products offers designers everything from superior acoustics and closed-loop, recycled content to eased integration with lighting systems, HVAC diffusers, fire sprinkler heads, and other overhead problems. This course describes how Building Teams are exploring ways to go beyond the treatment of ceilings as white, monolithic planes.
| Oct 30, 2014
CannonDesign releases guide for specifying flooring in healthcare settings
The new report, "Flooring Applications in Healthcare Settings," compares and contrasts different flooring types in the context of parameters such as health and safety impact, design and operational issues, environmental considerations, economics, and product options.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
