Silver Space Sciences Laboratory

The expansion, located adjacent to the existing Samuel Silver Building, occupies a mountaintop site at an elevation approximately 1,000 feet above and one mile to the east of the main Berkeley campus. The site-plan strategy defines an outdoor space between the expansion and the existing building. The heart of the complex is a group of "common" rooms-a lounge, library and conference room-centrally located for users in both the old and new buildings. These rooms, along with the building's staircases and lobbies, are situated to take advantage of the panoramic view of the San Franciso Bay Area. Terraces and balconies are provided at each level.

Much of the usable floor area in the expansion consists of generic office and research space. Research spaces include dry laboratories supported by an extensive telecommunications infrastructure. Approximately one quarter of the new research space is provided with substantial plumbing and mechanical systems appropriate for a variety of yet undefined laboratory fit-outs.

The expansion also provides significant new specialized facilities. One of these is the high bay, which includes a 10-ton crane for servicing large mobile equipment such as the Infrared Spatial Interferometer, and a tower loft containing a two-ton crane for the assembly and calibration of balloon-borne instrument packages. Another two-ton crane is provided in a class 1,000 cleanroom, which is an environment appropriate for the assembly and calibration of instruments destined for space missions.

The expansion is a partially braced, partially moment-resisting steel frame supported on spread footings and drilled piers. The exterior materials include cast-in-place concrete at the lower level, exterior insulating finish system for the main laboratory and office blocks and a ribbed metal panel system for the high-bay tower and exhaust stack screens.

Project Information

Building Owner:

University of California, Berkeley

Owner Contact:

Leroy Bean, FAIA, Vice Chancellor

Building Location:

Berkeley, CA UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction,Expansion

Principal Building Function:

Space Sciences Research Facility

Project Delivery Method:

Design/Bid/Build

Project Timeline

Feb 1994	Planning Start
Jul 1994	Design Start
Jul 1996	Construction Start
Dec 1997	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Construction Cost:

$9,799,000

Cost Per Sq. Ft:

$235

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Astronomy
Cleanroom
Conference Room
Education
Education: Classroom
Laboratory: Dry
Library
Office
Research

Total GSF:

41,675

Total NSF:

23,829

Efficiency:

57%

Building Population:

155

People Density:

269 gsf/person

Building Services:

Compressed air, industrial hot and cold water, gas

Special Equip:

10-ton and 2-ton cranes in high bay, class 1,000 cleanroom

Structure/Foundation:

Combination braced and moment-resisting steel frame on spread footings and drilled piers Fume Hoods: 3: 6' System

Laboratory Parameters

Lab Module:

11' x 26'

Fume Hoods:

3: 6'

Project Team

Architect

MBT Architecture

Builder

Morse Diesel International

Consultant - Civil

AGS Inc.

Consultant - Electrical

FW Associates

Consultant - Landscape Architect

Patricia O'Brien Landscape Architecture

Consultant - Mechanical

Affiliated Engineers Inc. (AEI)

Consultant - Structural

Forell/Elsessor Engineering

Consultant - Telecommunications

Infrastructure Design Associates

Supplier - Fume Hoods

Kewaunee Scientific Corporation

Supplier - HVAC

Pace Manufacturing

Supplier - HVAC

McQuay International

Profile Created 03/01/1999

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.

Fig. 1

Exterior

Fig. 2

Floorplan