The Plant and Environmental Sciences Building rising on the north side of campus is on schedule, under budget and already half way to completion, report officials from the Office of Architects and Engineers.
When completed in January 2002, the $36.6 million building will be occupied by faculty from the departments of Agronomy and Range Science and Land, Air and Water Resources.
The building is the first in the United States to utilize an unbonded braced frame system, the newest structural steel system designed to resist earthquakes, according to Clayton Halliday, assistant director for project management in the Office of Architects and Engineers. The technology was invented by the Japanese.
Components of the building include the fireproofed structural steel frame with unbonded braced frames for resisting lateral and seismic forces. The exterior cladding system is a precast concrete panels and aluminum curtain wall glazing system.
The 125,060-square-foot building has three levels plus a partial basement for electrical and mechanical equipment and includes 54 laboratories, according to the building's project manager, Michael Head of Architects and Engineers.
The ground level will house the administration offices, faculty and staff offices, teaching and research labs, and building support areas.
The second and third levels will have faculty and staff offices, research labs and conference rooms. The courtyard at the south side of the building will have a demonstration crop plot area and a soil display area featuring samples from the Pacific to the Sierra.
Begun in June 1999, the building exterior is mostly completed, and a construction crew is now working on the interior, installing sophisticated systems for vacuuming, air control, natural gas and safety.
Unlike many older labs on campus, the new labs will be able to maintain both temperature and air pressure when conducting experiments, Halliday pointed out.
The architect is ZGF from Portland, Ore., and the general contractor is N.L. Barnes from San Francisco.