The team met the project’s flexibility needs by incorporating elements such as labs that can be connected or closed off by opening a movable glass wall, which helps accommodate a variety of class sizes, as well as rooms with windows that can be darkened and converted into audiovisual display screens. The labs included specialty exhaust systems and glass walls along the hallways so visitors and prospective students can view science and engineering as they are taking place.

Photo by Sam Reed

The site had a critical campus utility tunnel and spur running right through the middle of the footprint of the building. The team turned this potential liability into an asset by using the north tunnel as a shoring structure for construction of the new building. The team then incorporated the exposed concrete in the spur into the layout of the building’s mechanical equipment room, transforming it into a visual feature by including a glass wall showcasing the mechanical equipment within.

The project achieved the highest tier of the state of Utah’s high-performance building standards, with the building air and exterior envelope tests receiving high marks on their first tests. The anatomy lab is the largest ever built in Utah, and the scope was the largest to date for the local concrete, electrical and mechanical trade partners on the project.