The five-story Engineering 2 Building includes 20,000 sf for the Institute of Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). Part of the California Institutes for Science and Technology, these state-funded research centers will provide a highly skilled workforce to drive entrepreneurial business growth in California.

Completed ahead of schedule and under budget, Engineering 2 houses unique technology for cutting-edge research. Fusing together information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, researchers can focus on helping people with life threatening problems and serious disabilities. Projects include helping the blind to see via mini video cameras hidden in eyeglasses; helping people with serious spinal cord injuries to stand and possibly walk again; and mapping the human genome.

Faculty and staff fully occupy the second and third floors, and part of the fourth floor. The Department of Economics occupies the remaining portion of the fourth floor. The top floor is devoted to QB2 and CITRIS. Each floor is divided into three zones. One zone contains flexible, easily reconfigurable dry research labs. The middle zone contains the building's core elements and programs that do not require natural light. The third zone houses ventilated faculty offices with plenty of natural lighting and views of the forested areas of the 2,000-acre campus.

The facility includes new offices and laboratories, two 50-seat classrooms equipped for distance learning with cameras and associated microphones, and a 212-seat auditorium. The auditorium, which serves the entire campus, connects to the existing Baskin Engineering building via an adjoining courtyard. A 100-seat classroom has been designed to act as an experimental multimedia learning environment. Known as "the Simularium," this classroom contains full audio/visual build outs for video feeds, traditional chalk boards and white boards, and equipment for overhead projection and multi-screen presentations. All classrooms are fully wired, and each seat has access to network connections and electrical outlets. A specially designed computer room houses a powerful cluster of computers for QB3 research in bioinformatics and for work with CITRIS in computer visualization. Collaboration areas include alcoves with soft chairs and a whiteboard where professors and students can share ideas and an Internet bar with wireless capability for surfing the Web or sending email.

Engineering 2 Building went from initial design to occupancy in a little more than three years, and received a merit award for design from the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Chapter.

Project Information
Building Owner:		University of California, Santa Cruz
Building Location:		Santa Cruz, California UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Engineering research and teaching
Project Delivery Method:		Fast Track
Project Timeline		Mar 2000 Planning Start Sep 2001 Design Start Jul 2002 Construction Start Sep 2004 Completion Last known status: Completed
Project Cost:		$61,000,000
Construction Cost:		$48,600,000
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$295
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Auditorium Biomedical Education Education: Biomedical Education: Classroom Education: Computer Lab Education: Distance Learning Education: Lecture Or Seminar Hall Education: Multimedia Engineering Laboratory Laboratory: Research Laboratory: Teaching
Total GSF:		156,000
Project Team
Architect		CO Architects
Profile Created 11/23/2005
Last Updated 04/04/2006
About the Reported Cost Figures The cost figures reported are supplied by the firms that submitted these projects for publication, which in most cases are the designers or builders. Whereas these sources are intimately familiar with their projects, they may not be fully aware of the owners' finally-realized and recorded costs. In some cases, costs are truly and completely accounted for, and in others they represent a near approximation of the final costs. Costs have not been adjusted for year of construction, nor has any attempt been made to make regional cost adjustments. Further, costs are not comparable on any kind of detailed standard costing model. Hence, it is possible for the cost of one building to include a steam boiler, while the cost of a comparable building might not include the boiler, if steam is being supplied from an already existing campus grid. Or, in another case, a building might include excess boiler capacity to supply steam to another building. Some submittals include fees or unusual site improvements as part of the construction costs, which others do not.