SEATTLE—The University of Washington Behavioral Health Teaching Facility is currently under construction at the UW Medical Center Northwest Campus in Seattle.

The six-story, 184,000-square-foot Behavioral Health Teaching Facility will be situated next to the campus’s current acute care hospital.  It is designed to address both behavioral and physical health issues, and its training paradigm will encompass training and buttressing local mental health advocacy programs.  The services provided will range from psychotherapy to medication management, surgical care and state-of-the-art “neuromodulation” treatments.   The facility will deliver integrated care jointly performed by medical and social services workers as part of a patient-focused goal that focuses on uniting the health of body and mind.

The new treatment facility at the University of Washington is a design-build venture between SRG Partnership, Clark | Abbott Joint Venture and the university itself.

“The design, created in collaboration with our clinical stakeholders, will be a warm and welcoming environment for patients, staff, and families promoting healing and wellbeing and reinforcing the connection between mind and body,” Carl Hampson, design principal with SRG, said in a recent statement.

Construction continues, with a projected completion date of the end of 2023.

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SEATTLE—The University of Washington’s famed Haring Center for Inclusive Education, which provides early education for children with developmental disabilities, has been in operation for a half-century, and thus was ready to align its building with a far more modern mission.

A cooperative team headed by representatives of UW and Mithun Architects aims to re-envision the building for the 21st century. Making use of a $30 million donation from the Sunderland family, the renovation aims to upgrade the “existing Haring Center to fully serve the contemporary experimental education unit, research and professional development programs within the College of Education,” according to a proposal released by the school.

Among the renovations, the architects are planning to redo the learning center’s HVAC system and update its roof, which needs to be replaced entirely. The building will be rewired for internet and Wi-Fi access, and its entire electrical system will be brought up to modern specifications as well. Other work to be done at the Haring Center includes reinforcing and/or replacing the building’s foundations, beams and columns.

The project aims to earn LEED Gold certification, as well as to present to the visitor more pleasurable visual stimuli such as water elements and outdoor courtyards. The 30,375-square-foot undertaking is being headed by Mithun; construction is slated to begin later this year and take approximately two years to complete.

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NanoES is specifically equipped for the performance of organic, inorganic and biomolecular synthesis, and will accommodate students and faculty in a variety of nanoengineering disciplines, including energy, materials science, computation and medicine. NanoES will also house research in nanotechnology fields such as augmented humanity, integrated photonics and scalable nanomanufacturing, which aims to develop low-cost, high-volume manufacturing processes.

The five-story, 78,000-square-foot building had a budget of $87.8 million. Seattle-based ZGF Architects completed the architecture and programming on the project, with Hoffman Construction Company, headquartered in Portland, Ore., serving as the general contractor. NanoES is supported by funds from the College of Engineering and the National Science Foundation as well as capital investments from investors and industry partners.

The new NanoES building is located in the science and engineering core of campus, and houses the UW Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems, just launched on Dec. 4, 2017. ZGF programmed and designed NanoES in conjunction with the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Buildings (MolES), which was Phase I of the complex and was completed in 2012.

“The completion of the Nanoengineering and Sciences Building marks the fulfillment of a nearly 10-year effort to design and construct the next generation of science facilities for this important university initiative,” said Steve Tatge, architect, LEED AP and executive director of Major Capital Projects, Capital Planning and Development at UW. “The two-phase complex gives the university the flexible, densely occupied, instrument-rich and interdisciplinary space, which will jumpstart the research and discovery the University of Washington is known for.”

Both buildings were designed to fit within the historic context of the area while also reflecting the cutting-edge nature of the research housed within them, with the exterior of the entire complex being composed entirely of limestone, aluminum and a glass curtain wall.

In addition, the two buildings help to form and enhance outdoor public space and extend pedestrian pathways, aiding in wayfinding and connections to other parts of the campus and the surrounding community. Additionally, its proximity to other science and engineering buildings allows for cross-departmental collaboration as well as joint research endeavors.

The 90,000-square-foot MolES Phase I building provides space to support a wide range of wet and dry laboratory uses, including fume hood-intensive chemistry, open plan offices for researchers, faculty offices, common and support space. The MolES facility is LEED Gold certified.

As an excellent complement to MolES, floors
two through four of NanoES contain programmed research laboratory spaces. The first floor has two classrooms designed for collaboration as well as a shared, informal learning center. Each of the other levels include a highly flexible technology-equipped laboratory, office and meeting spaces, and were designed with an open layout to encourage collaboration.

Designers incorporated “plug and play” capabilities into these spaces to maximize the technological adaptability of each room, and the research labs were designed so that as the equipment, research and faculty change over time, the spaces can support and morph as needed. The lab benches allow for equipment to be moved in and out of lab spaces easily.

“NanoES fulfills the vision for the complex, allowing for significant new research space in the campus core,” said Allyn Stellmacher, design partner, ZGF Architects. “The addition also brings the student-activation component to the ground floor with active learning environments and breakout spaces. With its central location, NanoES connects to a courtyard to the south and a large arterial, extending its reach to other parts of campus.”

Designed to LEED Silver standards, the design of NanoES has many impressive sustainable features that will easily earn this status. The building incorporates the same high-performance sustainability strategies that were applied in the MolES building — the first naturally ventilated laboratory on campus.

NanoES incorporates rain gardens, with stormwater runoff being directed to the roof gardens, reducing runoff to additional drainage systems. Green roofs have been planted with vegetation to attract native bees and support on-site water conservation efforts.

In addition, the design team worked closely with UW to re-examine the number of air changes required to provide high air quality, and air change rates were adjusted from approximately 10 to six per hour in main laboratory spaces. Chilled beams were selected for use in non-air-driven spaces such as labs containing ultra-sensitive electron microscopes and large pieces of research equipment in the building’s basement.

Another unique sustainable feature is the project’s use of phase-change materials (PCM) — a gel that becomes warm and liquid during the day and solidifies at night. Encapsulated in walls and ceiling panels of the naturally ventilated spaces, the gel reduces temperature as it changes material states. PCM was incorporated into the design of NanoES, which provided significant savings in the design of the mechanical systems as well as cost savings to UW and increased comfort to the building occupants.

NanoES has mainly southern and northern exposures, and as such, radiant flooring was used for heating and cooling. In addition, chilled sails are used in the ceilings along the south wall of the office spaces. The units are ceiling mounted and flush to the ceiling plane. Radiating panels are supplied with chilled water for cooling.

The strong partnership between UW and the design team, as well as a commitment to sustainability, brings MolES and NanoES together to create one high-performance complex that will foster a collaborative research environment for years to come, according to Tatge.

Check out the entire article in the May/June issue of School Construction News.

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The new building, referred to as CSE2, will complement the existing Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, also located on the Seattle campus, and will double the computer science and engineering program’s capacity. While the Paul G. Allen Center provided a significant boost to the program when it was completed in 2003, the university has since seen requests for enrollment skyrocket as the region is now home to both successful startups and leading tech companies. In a background document outlining the project’s need, the university noted that in the 14 years since the Paul G. Allen Center debuted, the computer science and engineering undergraduate program has doubled in size, and the graduate program and number of faculty have each grown by 50 percent. In that same time period, the program’s annual research funding has tripled and computer science and engineering has surpassed business administration as the university’s most sought-after major.

Upon completion, CSE2 will provide new instructional and collaborative spaces, expanded research labs and a sophisticated makerspace. An undergraduate commons area will offer space for students to study, relax or work collaboratively, while dedicated interview rooms will allow industry representatives to meet one-on-one with students. A tiered, 250-seat auditorium to be named the Amazon Auditorium will accommodate large classes and department colloquia. Meanwhile, research labs, robotics workshops, graduate seminar rooms and graduate-student offices will cater to higher-level students, according to the project website. A large, flexible commons space to be named the Zillow Commons will enable the university to host a variety of events and functions.

“Together, CSE2 and the Allen Center will enable [UW] to provide an unparalleled education and research experience to students, and to engage in even more robust collaborations across the campus, the region, and the globe,” the website continued.

The project’s design team was also responsible for the Paul G. Allen Center, and includes LMN Architects of Seattle and M.A. Mortenson Company, headquartered in Minneapolis. The building is currently set to open in January 2019.

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