Image
Courtesy of Burt Hill |
University
of Florida Chemistry/Chemical Biology Building/Gainesville,
Florida
Architect
Burt Hill/Butler, Pennsylvania
Owner
Florida Board of Education/Tallahassee, Florida
Size/Cost
100,000 sf/$49 million
TLC Services
MEP/FP/S/Voice-Data/Audio-Visual/Security/Energy Modeling
Registered
for LEED NC 2.2 Designed for Platinum
The
University of Florida’s new Chemistry/Chemical Biology
Building will provide a centralized home for undergraduate
general and organic chemistry instruction and state-of-the-art
research facilities for faculty and graduate students
studying chemical biology and chemical synthesis. In addition
to laboratory spaces, the four-story, 100,000-sf building
will include offices, an entrance atrium, two NMRs and
laboratory support spaces. It also will be a showcase
for energy efficient design: in keeping with the University’s
commitment to sustainability, the building is being designed
to achieve USGBC LEED® Platinum certification. The
team faced many unique challenges, most notably designing
a chemical fume hood-intensive building in the heart of
the historic portion of the campus and across the street
from student dormitories. There are 138 chemical fume
hoods, 124 snorkel exhausts and six biological safety
cabinets. Creative solutions were developed to exhaust
these devices while considering energy consumption, aesthetics
and to mitigate noise eminating from the rooftop exhaust
fans. To achieve high energy efficiency, numerous techniques
were explored such as using chilled beam technology; exhaust
system heat recovery; solar-enhanced hot water reheat;
daylighting; occupancy sensors; and optimizing window
size and orientation to minimize reheat energy expenditure.
The structural design had to consider the required stiffness
of the building structure to meet the required vibration
criterion curve; this criterion accommodates the vibration-sensitive
mechanical equipment, much of which is located in the
penthouse.
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