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Jordan Hall Laboratory Addition
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY JORDAN HALL LABORATORY ADDITION The Jordan Hall Addition is approximately 54,000 building gross square feet (bgsf) of laboratory, faculty office, and classroom space located on the site of the parking lot immediately east of the existing Jordan Hall with significant frontage on Western Boulevard, a major urban thoroughfare. This addition provides significant growth space for the University’s College of Natural Resources and the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. The final building master planned for a research precinct, the Jordan Hall Addition addresses several campus planning concerns, most significantly, the existing patterns of pedestrian and vehicle circulation, and the impact on the environment. The Jordan Hall Addition is not only a “Gateway” project for the University but also projects the institution’s image to its Centennial Campus Research Park. The building was identified as a pilot project for sustainable design certification and was crafted to meet the regional high-performance guidelines. The Concept At a conceptual level, the building attempts to balance the presence of wilderness or nature (found in the Succession Garden and certain aspects of the landscape plan), domesticity or the hearth (occurring in common or social areas), and scientific research. This triad of relationships holds the potential for discovery: the direct experience of nature, the fellowship of an intellectual community, and science as a tangible value system. During the early concept-discovery stages the faculty representatives indicated that the most difficult concept for students and lay people to grasp is the dynamic and cyclical occurrence of natural events. Nature is not static, but a repeating series of predictable patterns at a variety of temporal scales from hours to millions of years. An existing garden immediately west of Jordan Hall and Biltmore Hall attempted to demonstrate this process of forest succession. This notion, along with the existing insertion of a wilderness garden, presented the designers with a rich opportunity to create an analogue between species succession resulting in a forest, and a series of successive learning experiences culminating in education. The concept of “succession” was explored both formally, as a scaled time line which was then mapped onto the site; and conceptually, as a way of describing relationships between outdoor spaces. The succession diagram creates outdoor spaces organized such that wilderness, in the form of the succession garden, is succeeded by the hearth entrances of the building, along with domestic gathering spaces. These in turn are followed by special discovery areas representing the discipline of science, linked to, and drawn back toward, wilderness. Building Program The teaching of science is increasingly becoming an interactive and collaborative effort. Collaborative learning depends upon dynamic, highly interactive environments. These activities are inextricably linked. The new building design strives to foster interdisciplinary work among faculty and students alike. The interiors serve as a total teaching/learning environment, providing opportunities for productive informal encounters. The circulation zones contain white boards and pin-up space, and a small conversation area on each floor at the east end of the building. The succession opportunities for public entry into the building are defined by the nature of the activities inside. Horizontal movement within the building corridors are sized and protected to accommodate movement of large-scale equipment. Zones are designed adjacent to dedicated elevators for purposes of giving precedence to use by the physically disabled, movement of equipment, along with disposing of laboratory materials, recyclable and supplies. Recycling pass-throughs are organized along the corridor of each floor to promote recycling efforts on-campus, and the toilet facilities on the second and third floors have incorporated shower facilities into the plan to encourage occupants to exercise and utilize alternative transportation to the building. The succession from South to East to North is started by grouping the offices together as a block on the site rather than being dispersed throughout the facility. Adjacencies to the individual instructional laboratories provide a "scientific community" for greater interaction. With certain restrictions, the new building is accessible and useful to students and faculty after normal business hours. Opportunity for public entry into the building is limited as much as possible. Spaces, such as classrooms and lecture halls, are placed on the ground floor and separated as much as possible from instructional and research laboratories with higher security requirements. Vertically in this 5 story facility, movements between floors are as non-restrictive as possible. Attention is focused on encouraging occupants to use stairs and the connecting building bridge. Through careful, attentive design and placement of these elements, exposure to the outside and subsequent views are offered as students and faculty move vertically from floor to floor. Materials The material palette attempts to reinforce the character of the neighborhood. Similar to the existing Jordan Hall, large areas of clear anodized curtain wall are deployed on the South elevation, registering the faculty offices. Stairs and building services are contained in masonry volumes at each end of the floor plate. The North elevation is a composition of aluminum composite wall panels, expressing the mechanical workings of the laboratories behind the façade. The West elevation is adjacent to the existing Jordan Hall and is similar in configuration as the existing building. Connected only by a cantilevered walkway between the two buildings, the buildings are separated from each other by fire-rated exterior wall assemblies at the East and West side of the walkway. The West elevation of the new addition is primarily a composition of masonry veneer on metal stud assembly with aluminum composite wall panels installed at the perimeter of the passage doors and as the wall and ceiling finish for the walkway. Aluminum composite panels are used as the exterior cladding on the North, South, and East and as the soffit system for the overhang areas of the building. The use of metal plays several key roles in implementing a succession design concept, while meeting the functional and programming requirements for this university science building addition. • Metal systems and products for this project define the bridge connection while creating railings, enclose a large penthouse and denote primary building entrances. • The metal wall panels take on multiple configurations thus forming “sun screens, shelves and fins” that manage and harvest sunlight throughout the day. • On the south elevation, a suspended “metal wall panel” signifies the formal building entrance lobby for students and visitors. A similar technique is used on the east elevation to denote the primary pedestrian campus entrance. • In addition these lightweight “metal markers” reflect the program functions taking place behind them: to the south, conference-computer labs; and to the east, collaboration nodes. In each case the “metal wall panel” extends beyond the connecting glass, again to manage the east-west sunlight. • In complete contrast to the south elevation, the north façade is completely composed of metal wall panels. The system’s lightweight and insulated qualities allowed the design to maximize the use of glass, and thus views to nature. The south façade is responding to the existing building context, completed in the mid 1980’s. The team implemented metal solar sun screens to address the realities of this solar orientation. The north façade captures the indirect light and floods all the teaching laboratory and classrooms. The metal wall panels allow the design to complete the succession-education cycle and concept. Other materials and systems considered for this project did not display the flexibility, durability and construction benefits derived from the metal wall panel systems and products. The project is envisioned as an extension of the existing building; therefore, it is important to use a complimentary material. The use of metal serves as a complimentary material to the existing building, but at the same time, it allows the addition to establish its own identity without using an identical glazed curtain wall system. The Jordan Hall addition serves as a gateway for the university and provides a total teaching/learning environment. Project Description:
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