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 | Jul 17, 2024
University of Louisville Student Success Building will be new heart of engineering program
A new Student Success Building will serve as the heart of the newly designed University of Louisville’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering. The 115,000-sf structure will greatly increase lab space and consolidate student services to one location.
University Buildings | Jul 11, 2024
3 considerations for designing healthy, adaptable student dining
Amanda Vigneau, IIDA, NCDIQ, LEED ID+C, Director, Shepley Bulfinch, shares three ways student dining facilities have evolved to match changes in student life.
Laboratories | Jul 3, 2024
New science, old buildings: Renovating for efficiency, flexibility, and connection
What does the research space of the future look like? And can it be housed in older buildings—or does it require new construction?
University Buildings | Jun 28, 2024
The American University in Cairo launches a 270,000-sf expansion of its campus in New Cairo, Egypt
In New Cairo, Egypt, The American University in Cairo (AUC) has broken ground on a roughly 270,000-sf expansion of its campus. The project encompasses two new buildings intended to enhance the physical campus and support AUC’s mission to provide top-tier education and research.
University Buildings | Jun 18, 2024
UC Riverside’s new School of Medicine building supports team-based learning, showcases passive design strategies
The University of California, Riverside, School of Medicine has opened the 94,576-sf, five-floor Education Building II (EDII). Created by the design-build team of CO Architects and Hensel Phelps, the medical school’s new home supports team-based student learning, offers social spaces, and provides departmental offices for faculty and staff.
Headquarters | Jun 5, 2024
Several new projects are upgrading historic Princeton, N.J.
Multifamily, cultural, and office additions are among the new construction.
Mass Timber | May 31, 2024
Mass timber a big part of Western Washington University’s net-zero ambitions
Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Wash., 90 miles from Seattle, is in the process of expanding its ABET-accredited programs for electrical engineering, computer engineering and science, and energy science. As part of that process, the university is building Kaiser Borsari Hall, the 54,000-sf new home for those academic disciplines that will include teaching labs, research labs, classrooms, collaborative spaces, and administrative offices.
Products and Materials | May 31, 2024
Top building products for May 2024
BD+C Editors break down May's top 15 building products, from Durat and CaraGreen's Durat Plus to Zurn Siphonic Roof Drains.
University Buildings | May 30, 2024
Washington University School of Medicine opens one of the world’s largest neuroscience research buildings
In St. Louis’ Cortex Innovation District, Washington University School of Medicine recently opened its new Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building. Designed by CannonDesign and Perkins&Will, the 11-story, 609,000-sf facility is one of the largest neuroscience buildings in the world.
University Buildings | May 10, 2024
UNC Chapel Hill’s new medical education building offers seminar rooms and midsize classrooms—and notably, no lecture halls
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has unveiled a new medical education building, Roper Hall. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM) and Flad Architects, the UNC School of Medicine’s new building intends to train new generations of physicians through dynamic and active modes of learning.