flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Two LMN Architects-designed academic science buildings move forward for completion next year

University Buildings

Two LMN Architects-designed academic science buildings move forward for completion next year

These facilities will bring several disciplines under one roof.


By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | December 17, 2019

A rendering of the L-shaped Plant Sciences Building, part of a research and education master plan at Washington State University. Images: Courtesy of LMN Architects

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 | Aug 6, 2021

Is air quality the next hot campus amenity?

New research shows that students want to be back on campus, but they—and their parents—are asking more of higher ed institutions.

Architects | Aug 5, 2021

Lord Aeck Sargent's post-Katerra future, with LAS President Joe Greco

After three years under the ownership of Katerra, which closed its North American operations last May, the architecture firm Lord Aeck Sargent is re-establishing itself as an independent company, with an eye toward strengthening its eight practices and regional presence in the U.S.

Contractors | Jul 23, 2021

The aggressive growth of Salas O'Brien, with CEO Darin Anderson

Engineering firm Salas O'Brien has made multiple acquisitions over the past two years to achieve its Be Local Everywhere business model. In this exclusive interview for HorizonTV, BD+C's John Caulfield sits down with the firm's Chairman and CEO, Darin Anderson, to discuss its business model.

University Buildings | Jul 14, 2021

New 678-bed student housing development breaks ground near the University of South Carolina

CRG has partnered with Landmark Properties on the project.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Libraries

Reasons to reinvent the Midcentury academic library

DLR Group's Interior Design Leader Gretchen Holy, Assoc. IIDA, shares the idea that a designer's responsibility to embrace a library’s history, respect its past, and create an environment that will serve student populations for the next 100 years.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021