The top floor, which also houses a student/faculty dining room, is concealed within the deeply sloping roofline to reduce the building's height and bulk. Rooftop chimneys forms serve as fume hood exhaust devices. Exposed vertical supply air shafts, located at the building corners, are integrated within the architectural design in a massing expression of their function. The gradual stepped profile of these forms at the lower and upper levels reflects the diminishing volume of the shafts

To meet interior space requirements, the building is extended underground on two levels. All laboratories, offices and building systems are modular to ensure adaptability for future change. Professors' offices are located along the sheltered north side, with views of the Mining Circle. Horizontal and vertical fins of precast concrete provide exterior solar shading on the east, west and south exposures and recall the deeply recessed windows of the older buildings.

While conceptually defined as a freestanding pavilion, the building has a functional interrelationship with each floor of adjacent nine-story Latimer Hall. The challenge of joining these unrelated architectural forms is accomplished by separating the new buildings by 11 feet and visually creating an independent link-- transparent glass that is fully glazed on the north side and topped by a skylight to provide daylight to interior labs. The connecting elevator core on the south elevation is a discrete columnar element hinging the two structures. A second-floor pedestrian bridge connects to the third floor of the chemistry building.