21st Century Research

by Jonathan McGaha | April 30, 2014 12:00 am

The physical and life sciences converge on Penn State University in State College, Pa., at the Millennium Science Complex (MSC). Designed by internationally renowned architect Rafael Viñoly, New York City, the state-of-the-art facility houses the school’s premier research organizations, the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and Materials Research Institute.

MSC is one of the nation’s first buildings specifically constructed to support the integration of the physical and life sciences, and at the center of the new facility is a new style of research that is dependent on the idea that different disciplines coordinate technologies and knowledge to produce exponential advances. Therefore, MSC provides research space with the opportunity for both formal and informal intellectual exchanges.

“In response to an extremely sensitive research program, Rafael Viñoly Architects designed a structural solution for the state-of-the-art laboratory facility that accommodates technological needs and enables collaboration between the two departments, particularly in nanoscience fields, while also creating open space and a gateway to the university’s science and research corridor,” explains David Rolland, partner at Rafael Viñoly.

The L-shaped, 275,600-square-foot tiered building features a structural steel frame, precast skin with curtainwall, metal panels and green roofs. Kinsley Manufacturing, York, Pa., fabricated and installed 4,200 tons of structural steel, miscellaneous metals and metal decking for the project.

Each department is hosted in its own perpendicular wing, measuring approximately 550 feet long by 110 feet wide. Life Sciences is in the western wing, while Material Sciences is in the northern wing. At every level, the roof steps back 110 feet, creating terraces for the green roofs.

 

A Campus Icon

Already a campus icon, the MSC’s signature architectural feature is located at the northwest corner, where the two wings meet in a 154-foot cantilever over the main entrance and open-air public plaza. Joined together on the fourth floor, interaction and collaboration between the two departments are encouraged with common meeting and social spaces.

The cantilever is essential to the building’s structural design because it provides the necessary support for the complete acoustic and vibration isolation required by the state-of-the-art quiet rooms and nano-mechanical laboratories located directly beneath the public plaza. To meet the strict vibration-free criteria, Rolland notes that the quiet rooms are structurally isolated from the rest of the building and situated on 24-inch-thick slabs below grade at the intersection of the two wings.

“The whole building takes its form from the technical demands of the laboratory spaces,” Rolland explains. “A 154-foot cantilever over the plaza and rock garden was selected as the structural solution in order to eliminate columns, which would transmit vibration from the MEP room at the top of the building to the quiet room at its base. The slab for the quiet room was also isolated to maintain the integrity of this vibrationally and acoustically sensitive space.”

 

Modern Metals

According to Rolland, the project serves to highlight the modern use of both traditional (brick) and contemporary (metal) materials, and each are used to define systems within the building structure and envelope. “Metal panels define the cores of the building, the large lightwell above the plaza, and are used for the cantilevered soffit where they reinforce the monolithic nature of the building through the use of oversized panels and by matching the color of the brick envelope,” he says.

Metalwërks, Kennett Square, Pa., supplied approximately 93,000 square feet of its Arcwall aluminum composite material (ACM) panels in two different designs: Rainscreen-Edge Grip and Arcwall ACM Wet Seal. The panels were fabricated with 4-mm and 6-mm Reynobond ACM sheets from Alcoa Architectural Products, Eastman, Ga.

Steve Scharr, director of business development at Metalwërks, notes the lightwell walls are clad with approximately 10,000 square feet of custom-designed 6-mm Metalwërks ACM Edge-Grip panels in Brushed Aluminum with extruded aluminum reveals. These panels were also used at the mechanical screen walls, while approximately 30,000 4-mm wet-sealed ACM panels in Custom Copper and Silver XL were used behind the sloped ceilings, precast outriggers and beam wraps.

Different joint appearances were required for
different areas of the building, Scharr explains. “We developed the edge grip frame to provide the crisp edge but also to enable varying joint sizes for different areas on the building-vertical roof screens with 1-inch joints, vertical lightwells with horizontal and vertical 1/2-inch reveals,” he says. “In effect, we were able to provide two different systems with one panel frame platform which enabled the fabrication, design and installation to flow efficiently.”

“The composite metal panels on the soffit of the cantilevered structure above the plaza and cladding the trellis above the green roof terraces match the color of the brick and serve to enhance the monolithic and sculptural nature of the structure,” notes Rolland. “The silver composite metal panels that clad the core and the lightwell help to define the vertical architectural elements and to reduce the impact of these volumes on the skyline.”

“Metalwërks Arcwall aluminum panels were easily adapted to the building’s unique geometry but also to provide interesting joint patterns,” Scharr says. “By using the dry-jointed edge grip panels in the lightwell, they were able to achieve crisp and sleek lines, which is important when the panel aspects of the design are so visible to building occupants inside and at the entry and terrace levels.”

 

High-Performance Standards

The LEED Gold-certified building aligns with the university’s goals for ecologically sustainable development on campus, notes Rolland. “A large measure of this performance came from energy-efficient measures, though the most visible element can be seen in the green roofs that cover the building terraces,” he says.

The facility features 60,000 square feet of green roofs covering five different areas, along with a drainage system that collects water to reduce stormwater runoff, heat-recovery wheels that recycle air and absorb energy, and deep-set windows with energy-efficient glass that reduces heat in the summer and admits light during winter, along with fitted louvers.

Along each of the structure’s four stories, the lines of the brick-clad exterior are offset with rows of continuous window systems, allowing an abundance of natural light to penetrate the interior and create a visual band around the exterior. On the second and third floors, each curtainwall section is accented by exterior sunshades that help control solar heat gain and glare, while emphasizing the structure’s horizontal lines.

General contractor The Whiting Turner Contracting Co., Baltimore, and glazing contractor D-M Products Inc., Bethel Park, Pa., specified Wausau, Wis.-based Wausau Window and Wall Systems’ SuperWall curtainwall.

Wausau fabricated nearly 37,000 square feet of its 6250 and 8250 Series two-sided structural glazed SuperWall, which was field-assembled and installed by D-M Products’ team. Additionally, Wausua supplied its shop-fabricated, pre-assembled 90-degree curtainwall corners and ready-to-install ClearStory sunshades. Wausau-based Linetec painted the aluminum in a three-coat custom Champagne Bronze Sunstorm 70 percent PVDF finish and a two-coat Sandstone 70 percent PVDF finish, while Viracon, Owatonna, Minn., fabricated the glass.

“To ensure the desired look and performance, we worked with Rafael Viñoly’s team from the early stages of design,” says Steve Gille, Wausau’s education market manager. “We gave careful attention to the sunshades and their connection points with the curtainwall. We engineered the sunshades as integral to the curtainwall and performed all of the structural calculations to make sure everything works together as intended.”

 

Design Modeling

Completed in 2011, Rolland notes the $215 million Millennium Science Complex is Rafael Viñoly Architects’ first project to be designed and modeled entirely in Revit for improved coordination and integration.

“The design team used a building information modeling
(BIM) design approach, which enabled us to gain great visibility of the design intent by seeing the varying massing they wanted to achieve,” notes Scharr. “Our goal was to make a set of panel systems that mirrored the design intent for the different profiles, but simultaneously make our customer’s installation method and layout as easy as possible. I think we achieved both of those goals well.”

“We provided BIMs of curtainwall, which were inserted into the master,” adds Jeremy Harger, Wausau’s engineering manager. “This helped detect clashes in the design schematics, which saved time and avoided errors in both manufacturing and installing the systems. We also ran numerous thermal models to get the proper balance of surface temperature and condensation resistance.”

“Millennium Science Complex serves as an outstanding example of how collaborative, upfront involvement between the design, contractor and manufacturing team members can deliver the desired performance and beauty, creating a stunning campus icon,” adds Gille.

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