Completion: 2011
Square Footage: 70,000
LEED Gold Tracking

In 2006, we analyzed 320,000 square feet of space on the Lehman campus to create a master plan for the sciences. A fundamental goal of this effort was to create an integrated "campus within a campus" for the sciences that would foster interdisciplinary, collaborative relationships among students, faculty and academic departments.

Phase I of this plan is the new research and teaching facility, the gateway to the science campus. Together with existing Gillet Hall, the building frames a central courtyard containing a constructed wetland system with planting beds, stormwater retention tanks and an outdoor learning laboratory. The courtyard creates, not just an urban oasis and community amenity, but also an "open lab" where students and faculty can control several system variables for comparison and study.

Teaching and research wings are joined by a 4-story atrium that provides informal gathering spaces surrounded by an open stair linking all levels. The building plan is highly flexible and efficient with bench space in open research labs that can be easily adapted to new protocols, teaching labs that can be converted to research labs and seminar rooms that are modified to serve as graduate assistant "bullpens". Higher utilization rates are achieved with 24-seat lab/lecture rooms. Sustainability is integrated into the educational and research pedagogies as well as the building systems.