The U.S. Department of Energy will begin construction in fall of 2021 on the $19.5 million Research and Innovation Laboratory (RAIL) in Golden, Colo. Located on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's South Table Mountain campus, the 15,700-sf facility will provide 5,500 sf of flexible lab space for cross-disciplinary research at the intersection of chemistry, materials science, bioscience, and engineering. Designed by Davis Partnership Architects to accommodate many different user groups, the highly adaptable structure will offer myriad indoor and outdoor collaboration spaces to foster interaction and innovation. The high-performance building will leverage evaporative cooling and heat recovery technologies to reduce energy consumption and minimize emissions. Additionally, the electrical infrastructure will be configured to accommodate a future microgrid, allowing the building to eventually run on completely renewable sources. Mortenson is the design-build contractor for the facility, which is slated for completion in late 2022.
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Davis Partnership Architects
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Architect
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Mortenson
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Design-Build Contractor
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