The first in a series of buildings that will eventually form an interdisciplinary center, the new facility transforms the center of the College of Integrated Sciences and Technology (CISAT) campus.
Housing more than a dozen affiliated interdisciplinary groups under one roof, the building promotes discovery-based learning in a collaborative and interactive community of students and researchers. The discovery-based learning environment extends to the outdoors, where 128,000 SF of indigenously planted gardens serve as living laboratories for teaching, demonstration, and sustainable design, including bio-filtration gardens, rainwater harvesting, and green roofs, etc.
The building is organized into neighborhood groups, each consisting of teaching and research labs, faculty and graduate student offices, and tutorial space for student and faculty collaboration. The facility also includes lecture rooms, computer labs, seminar rooms, and common spaces for informal gathering, as well as a research greenhouse and 3,000 SF animal care facility.
The innovative design establishes strong connectivity to existing buildings on all sides – Physics & Chemistry, the Festival Conference & Student Center, and the East Campus Library.
Building Facts
- 90,000 GSF
- 128,000 SF "living lab" landscape
- Anatomy
- Physiology
- Microbiology
- Ecology
- Plant Sciences
- Greenhouse
- Vivarium
- LEED Silver certified
Biology on Display
Designed to take advantage of the synergies among programs in biological sciences, the building communicates its mission by opening labs and classrooms to passers-by and through its material palette and a three-story mural of a DNA strand that connects the glassy entry atrium to transparent study spaces stacked above it. The organization of classrooms, labs, faculty offices and informal student spaces was informed by proprietary research on how the design of STEM facilities impacts student behavior and outcomes.
