Construction update: Innovative Technologies Complex

Walk in almost any direction on campus and you’ll see a major construction project underway – the East Campus Housing Project, Science 5, the East Gym renovation, and the Engineering and Science and Center of Excellence buildings at the Innovative Technologies Complex. Over the next few issues of Inside, we’ll update you on these projects on campus, as well as others that will begin following Commencement.

The Engineering and Science Building

The second building at the ITC, the $66 million, 125,000-square-foot Engineering and Science Building connects with the Biotechnology Building via a glass rotunda and is nearing completion. “The goal for this building is to provide one of the most rapidly growing entities on campus – the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science – much-needed space,” said James Van Voorst, vice president for administration. “The type of work the school does is so important to the future of the University.”

When completed, the Engineering and Science Building will house the Watson School’s dean’s office, departments of mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering, the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center, start-up suites, academic spaces and flexible laboratory spaces. After the new building is occupied, the current Engineering Building will be rehabilitated so people in that building will have spaces better suited to their work, Van Voorst said.

“This new Engineering and Science Building is state-of-the-art, and we’ve been able to do some things the original plans didn’t provide for,” Van Voorst said. How? Through in-house design. 

“There’s probably no other campus in the SUNY system that can deliver a project in this manner,” said Lawrence Roma, associate vice president for facilities management. “Very few campuses have in-house architects. Our architect of record, Bill Hall, has taken on that responsibility and done the drawings. Then what we’ve done is collaborated and reached out for engineering support.

“Because the original budget had a sizable budget for design,” Roma said, “we’ve been able to divert some money for additional equipment.”

Stantec in Endicott has served as the contractor for all mechanical, electrical, plumbing, sprinkler and structural issues, said Roma, “and that collaboration has worked out wonderfully.”

The Watson Dean’s Office staff moved into their offices a few weeks ago, but the building is still an active construction site. The remaining spaces will be occupied as work throughout the building is completed and at the most opportune times for departments to relocate with the least impact upon operations.

The building has been constructed to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold standards, the highest level for any Binghamton University building to date. Once the building is completed, the University will conduct critical analyses and apply for the LEED Gold certification, Roma said.

Unique features include:
    • Geothermal heating to circulate water that has been warmed by the natural temperatures of the Earth’s core
    • Natural light with offices located around the building’s exterior so each office has a window; the main hallway is open with a skylight running the length of the hall and lab spaces also include windows
    • Chilled beams in the labs that use water rather than air to remove heat caused by lights, computers and other equipment are energy efficient and quiet
    • A server room that uses a cold-water system similar to the chilled beams to draw heat away and that also includes space for expansion
    • A photovoltaic wall (two stories of solar panels) that converts sunlight to electricity
    • A green roof that insulates the building and is self-sustaining by eliminating runoff, increasing the roof’s lifespan

The building’s mechanical systems, located in a tower structurally separated from the building, will also remain accessible and serve as a teaching tool for engineering students. 

In terms of laboratory space, the Engineering and Science Building uses a model that focuses on shared spaced to encourage and facilitate collaboration.

Laboratory features include:
    • A large laboratory to house the majority of resources and equipment, with several smaller labs directly off the shared space
    • Large, shared, computational work spaces
    • Skycaps that hang from the ceiling and run the length of a work bench, with color-coded ports that researchers can easily plug into for power and other needs
    • Adjustable bench heights to accommodate equipment and users
    • Specialized accommodations for specific research needs: one room includes a static dissipating floor to ensure that electrical charges don’t adversely affect a researcher’s work with electronics; there is also an anechoic chamber −a soundproof room designed to stop reflections of sound or electromagnetic waves.

For a video tour of the Engineering and Science Building, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yks6v9517lA. For additional information, visit http://www.binghamton.edu/watson/ and click on the “New Engineering and Science Building nears completion.”

Center of Excellence

The Center of Excellence building, which broke ground in October 2010, will also utilize in-house staff for the architectural design. The building will connect with the Biotechnology and Engineering and Science buildings when it is completed in 2013. Construction is expected to be completed by May, with move-in scheduled in August. The $30 million, 114-square-foot building will provide space for the Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP).

To see a video on the Center of Excellence groundbreaking, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjoUo21AhSI&feature=relmfu .

For information on summer construction projects that will be addressed in the next few issues of Inside, visit available http://www2.binghamton.edu/physical-facilities/summer_construction.html.