Designed by ZGF Architects, in association with OPN Architects, the Biorenewable Research Laboratory on the Ames campus of Iowa State University is the first of three projects completed as part of the school’s Biorenewables Complex. The 71,800-sf LEED Gold project is one of three wings that will make up the 210,000-sf complex. Transparency was a key design element, with a central atrium lobby, first-floor teaching labs with windows opening to the lobby, glass walls between laboratories and offices, large exterior windows to capture sunlight (with sun shelves to reduce glare and heat gain), and narrow floor plates to let light filter deep into the building’s interior.
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