The 155,000-sf home to the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science provides labs, classrooms, and offices for more than 360 professors and graduate students. The goals of this $45-million project were to address critical and qualitative space requirements, modernize facilities to become a cornerstone for engineering research, and fulfill University-mandated green building requirements.

The innovative design and operating features for achieving ultra-high energy-use efficiencies were achieved with the late addition of a heat recovery system and HVAC operations sequences as well as stringent construction controls in the building shell and under-floor plenum. This resulted in first-year occupancy energy use at less than 40 percent of state energy requirements. While the target was 50 percent, the goal was exceeded through an additional combination of strategies including atrium-based natural ventilation and steam heating, night flushing, heat/cold sinks, ample natural atrium lighting and skylights, and occupancy-sensor controls for both climate and lighting control.

Three zones of natural ventilation flow through the offices directly without fan assistance. The entire building is naturally ventilated 80 percent of the time. With the exception of the labs and servers, mechanical heating and cooling is necessary only 20 percent of the time.

While the atrium is naturally lighted and ventilated, the mixture of electrical engineering labs are mechanically heated by campus steam and cooled by chillers. Offices can be heated by using a fin tube radiator or cooled by opening a window.

A rainwater collection system collects water for building sewage conveyance and on-site irrigation. Use of native plants and water-efficient fixtures reduce the building’s baseline potable water usage by 65 percent.

Recycled materials are used in the concrete, steel, carpet, acoustical suspended ceilings, masonry, glass, and gypsum wallboard. At least 20 percent of the building material was manufactured, extracted, or harvested regionally. Heat-attracting materials such as exposed steel, granite, and concrete act as a heat or cold sink.

Wireless communications technology is in the classrooms, flexible learning laboratories, and office clusters. Common areas that encourage communication include “plug-and-learn” alcoves: six open nooks with comfortable sofas and chairs, small tables, and a piano. From sky bridges and hallway alcoves to glass-walled conference rooms, graduate student offices clustered around research laboratories, and a centrally located e-café in the atrium, the Center’s layout encourages occupants to cross paths and brainstorm new ideas that will translate into cutting-edge research.

Each lab is the central element of a “research-learning suite” surrounded by 155 faculty and graduate student offices, and is assigned to a specific research project, not to individual faculty members. Within the labs, there is a radio frequency-shielded laboratory, a wet laboratory with fume hoods, and six electronics laboratories.

The support spaces consist of 2,200 open computer spaces, 12 conference rooms, two 60+ person classrooms, two large theater-style classrooms, two “reconfigurable” class/conference rooms, and nine seminar classrooms.

Project Information
Building Owner:		Oregon State University
Building Location:		Corvallis, Oregon UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Electrical engineering and computer science research and teaching
Project Delivery Method:		Construction Management
Project Timeline		Sep 2006 Completion Last known status: Completed
Project Cost:		$45,000,000
Construction Cost:		$33,600,000
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Chiller Computers Education Engineering Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory Office
Total GSF:		155,000
Building Population:		360
Project Team
General Contractor		Skanska USA Building Inc.
Profile Created 01/31/2007
Last Updated 10/12/2007
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.