"Everyone involved should be incredibly proud of this. Science buildings are notoriously large energy consumers, and LEED Gold is a testament to the efforts of EKU and the entire project team", stated Eric Zabilka, principal at Omni Architects' and key designer of the facility.
The program for the new building, constructed in two phases, includes teaching laboratories, computational labs, faculty and student research laboratories, classrooms, seminar rooms, faculty and student organization offices, a greenhouse, and a clean room. Phase 1 included the departments of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Science Education, and the Division of Natural Areas. A key design objective was to create public spaces that display the sciences and encourage interaction between the departments and the wider community.
The six-story Phase 2 addition includes the departments of Geosciences and Biological Sciences, and features classrooms, teaching laboratories, research laboratories, offices, chemical storage areas and support spaces in approximately 148,058 GSF. The project also included the fit-up of lab space in the Phase 1 building, and construction of a new stand-alone one-story greenhouse.
Designed by Omni Architects, the New Science Building is the largest building of its kind in Kentucky at just over 300,000 square feet. Learn more about the project by clicking here.