COTE Awards Celebrates 3 Educational Facilities

PHILADELPHIA — The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) honored three educational buildings as part of the 2016 COTE Top Ten Awards, held last month at the AIA Convention in Philadelphia. The three facilities — Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley College of Engineering; the University of Wyoming Visual Arts Facility; and the Biosciences Research Building (BRB) at National University of Ireland, Galway — were recognized for their innovative designs as well as their successful integration of sustainable systems and materials.

Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation: Designed by San Francisco-based Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, the building opened in September 2015 as part of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The 24,000-square-foot facility was built on a repurposed, 11,000-square-foot site and features an efficient design that minimizes circulation and maximizes flexible learning space. It uses 90 percent less energy than the national average for university buildings and includes simplified massing, a high-performance skin and cantilevered photovoltaic array.

University of Wyoming – Visual Arts Facility: The $27 million facility consolidated the university’s fine arts program into one location when it opened in 2012. Designed by Portland, Ore.-based Hacker, the 77,484-square-foot building’s roof features one of the largest solar evacuated tubes in the country. Heat recovery also helps contribute to the building’s energy performance, with a 100 percent exhaust ventilation system used throughout the studio spaces.

Biosciences Research Building (BRB) at National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG): The $36.7 million BRB is the first phase of a new North Campus Science Precinct at NUIG and provides high-technology science research dedicated to cancer research, regenerative medicine, chemical biology and Biosafety Level 3 animal research. It became one of the most energy-efficient research buildings in the world dedicated to such an intense scientific agenda when it opened in October 2013.

Designed by Cork, Ireland-based Reddy Architecture and Urbanism, the BRB was designed with a minimum-energy approach using a layered lab concept. Low-energy use spaces such as offices and collaboration spaces are grouped along the perimeter to optimize the opportunity for natural ventilation and daylighting. This helped create a compact layout that accounted for programmatic efficiency and allowed the lab research space to grow by 33 percent, dramatically reducing the energy consumption for each lab-bench position.