Situated on an open site on a major thoroughfare that divides the campus, the 110,000-square-foot Kean University Center for Science, Technology and Mathematics Education provides an interdisciplinary teaching lab, classroom, research and event space, and establishes an architectural focal point uniting the university’s east and west campuses. The university is located in an urban area of Union, N.J., and annually welcomes 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
The center’s torqued floor plan, which provides no back door, responds to the dynamic nature of the site. Angled floor plates and large expanses of glass allow for maximum daylight, and, at night, display the inner workings of the building. The top floor slopes upward and is oriented to views of the Manhattan skyline.
The building also embraces the most recent innovations in the art of science teaching and the latest laboratory-planning trends, featuring teaching environments that are open and flexible. These spaces include a seated classroom with a standing wet-laboratory environment, promoting easy access to different teaching methodologies and facilitating group discussion and collaboration. The science spaces are also modular and flexible enough to accommodate future curricular and technological changes. A large auditorium, lecture rooms and student lounges are open and foster collaboration while an exhibition area, conference facility, coffee bar and restaurant serve to complete the building’s successful union of science, pedagogy and the public in a fresh, dynamic environment.
Sustainability was key, and the project embodies several energy-saving techniques. The building’s design earned an Innovation and Design credit for its custom solar shading featuring 6-inch-wide, transparent vertical fins attached at a 40-degree angle to the southwest-facing curtainwall system, greatly reducing exposure to the mid-afternoon sun.
The building also utilizes a ground-source heating and cooling system that extracts free heat from the ground in winter and rejects heat to the ground in summer via a geothermal heat exchanger. This technology will conserve energy across the building’s lifespan while ensuring adequate heating and cooling on extreme temperature days.
Designed to LEED Gold standards, the project also offers a green roof, gray water reclamation and natural daylighting in addition to the building’s flexible design that allows it to remain functional over a long lifespan.
Cannon Design, New York City, was the architect, and Terminal Construction Corp., Wood-Ridge, N.J., was the contractor. The curtainwall was manufactured by Alumicor Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and installed by All Glass, Langhorne, Pa. Eastman, Ga.-based Alcoa Architectural Products supplied its Reynobond aluminum composite material panels that were installed by Bamco Inc., Middlesex, N.J. Additionally, SRS Metals Inc., Metuchen, N.J., supplied the railings.
Alcoa Architectural Products, www.alcoaarchitecturalproducts.com
Alumicor Ltd., www.alumicor.com
SRS Metals Inc., www.srs-metals.com
