UNC COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE BUILDING

with Leers Weinzapfel Associates

Location: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Status: On Hold

The Collabrative Science Building will gather together currently dispersed computational research units in the Health and Development Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Bio-Research in one facility to create a community of over 1,000 researchers. The building will contain mainly workspaces in a mix of open studios and private offices, supported by a range of formal and informal meeting spaces gathered around a common atrium space.  The ground floor will house an open commons for events and presentations, a large multi-function meeting room, training rooms, media laboratories, and a large informal café/dining area opening onto a terrace.  The CSB will be located on the new Carolina North Campus, which will occupy the site of an existing airport to the north of the main campus.  It will be the first building constructed on the site, and will face a new green spine which will replace the existing runway.

The massing of the CSB is divided into a southern terraced office volume clad in a heavily insulated metal panel rainscreen system, and a northern conference bar with a curtain wall skin.  The glazed north bar showcases the collaborative meeting spaces in the project from the campus green spine, while the open office spaces minimize partitions to enable interdepartmental collaboration.  The CSB is designed to maximize daylighting iand views and minimize energy use with the intent of creating a structure that defines the cutting edge of sustainable office design.