CEE434 Students toured the Physical Sciences Building during construction, and then the AGC Student Chapter toured again later in the process to see the extesive coordination of MEP required for a science building with active labs. The contractor, architect, structural engineer, Owner representative and LEED Energy Consultant all provided guest lectures in the CEE capstone design seminar class to provide the full picture of the project. The two tours complemented each other very well and were a great picture of the overall project!
Unfortunately, files of most of my photos are missing, but a quick overview and some of the BIM modeling is shown below.
The tour included an overview of the project, including the science laboratory spaces and the historic structure that was moved, brick by brick, to its new location and will be used for graduate student offices. Below you can see the peaked roof for the entry and fake chimney that were used to recreate the contours of the original structure, while providing an entirely new structural steel system to carry the lateral wind and seismic loads.
The steel framing in the front building and laboratory space was fairly typical for this size structure (see other tours), but had some interesting features such as the connection to the existing building that is isolated to maintain their independence as separate structures and use of some non-typical shapes.
The Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing (MEP) work was extensive for the project. We were lucky to have the contractor show the Building Information Modeling (BIM), including the conflict resolutions and scheduling for the project.
The final structures are seen below.
