Metropolitan State University is working with the local architecture firm
BWBR to design a new $25 million science center for its St. Paul campus.
The 59,000-square-foot facility includes laboratories, lecture and demonstration classrooms, seminar rooms, offices, and support spaces--all in one place, according to BWBR information.
Beyond its biology and life science tracks, the school will be able to add chemistry and physics minors along with earth, space, and environment courses.
John Strachota, a vice president at BWBR who is a principal on the project, says that the school's existing science facilities are limiting.
Right now, the school has to "triple up students and it has to schedule things so everyone gets a chance. It's hard to deliver their programs that way because there are so few resources."
Although the design is still coming together, he says he envisions an open, flexible style of lab design that brings together experimentation and discussion.
On a broader level, one goal of the project is to design the center so that "The moment you see the building, it will express and teach science."
Passersby might be able to catch a glimpse of what's happening inside the labs through windows, while technological tools could display the building's real-time energy use.
The building will also have gathering spaces for students to continue learning in informal ways.
Metropolitan State wants to pursue a high level of LEED certification, which recognizes green building accomplishments.
At this time, the school hopes to open the center in the summer of 2014.
Source: John Strachota, AIA, LEED AP, vice president, BWBR
Writer: Anna Pratt