The owner’s objective is to create a net-positive energy and water facility, based on the project’s design and construction materials. The design evolved into a two-story building with a partial basement (mechanical, electrical, plumbing and storage). The first floor provides an open atrium to the second floor with teaching, conference and multipurpose offices and auditorium spaces. The second level contains classroom and lab spaces, along with storage, electrical and telecom rooms. The roof is two levels and includes a steel canopy used to support a 290K-watt PV panel power supply and a 5,600-square-foot botanical roof garden. The structure is primarily concrete up to slab-on-grade with steel and lumber vertical framing and glulam beams and floor systems.


The site (excluding the building footprint) is approximately 46K square feet. Its concentrated, diverse use of space provides a multitude of landscaping requirements needed for various water collection use and reuse per design requirements. There is no vehicle traffic, except at the basement dock, but pedestrian pavement is a wide variation of materials and geometric distribution.