Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Wake Technical Community College: Health Sciences Building H

  • 11/01/17
Wake Technical Community College

PHOTOS © JIM SINK

This new Health Sciences building greatly expands Wake Technical Community College’s (WTCC) capacity for rapidly growing programs which are vital to community health. This 67,000-square-foot building houses health sciences classrooms and laboratories for biology, microbiology, anatomy, and physiology studies, including a STEM lab shared among all programs.

The building, designed by LS3P Associates Ltd., maintains the natural area around its site on WTCC’s Raleigh, NC, campus, integrating deliberately with the woods around it and preserving large specimen trees and views to nature. The footprint works with the site’s topography, physical constraints, thoroughfare buffer and tree conservation areas, with a north/south orientation which captures views and provides a stream buffer. Additionally, the building serves as a connector along the pedestrian path between the east and west sides of campus; a pedestrian plaza to the west of the building provides a welcoming gathering place.

The LEED Silver project maximizes open space, preserves habitat and implements strategies for quality control of stormwater. Deep mullions on the east and west shade the curtain walls to minimize glare and solar heat gains, while sustainable materials provide a healthier interior environment. The curtain wall on the interior and exterior increases visibility and safety; occupants are able to see outside from all public spaces for wayfinding, daylighting and connection to nature. The building shifts orientation at the center to work with existing topography, minimizing the amount of cut and fill during the grading process.

The building’s form and materials palette complements the existing high-tech campus aesthetic, reinforcing a sense of campus identity and the college’s forward-looking vision. Dark masonry, precast concrete, metal panels and glass with a mix of grey and earth-toned hues continue the cohesive campus aesthetic. Other elements such as expanses of glass, louvers, shading devices, exterior columns and flat roofs mesh with the existing campus materials palette.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Texas A&M Opens First Building at Fort Worth Campus, Breaks Ground on Research Facility

    The Texas A&M University System marked a major milestone in the development of its Fort Worth campus by opening its first completed academic building and breaking ground on a second facility designed to expand research and industry collaboration.

  • Photo courtesy of Kraus-Anderson

    Concordia College Completes Memorial Auditorium Renovations

    Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., recently completed a $2.5-million renovation project to Memorial Auditorium, a news release reports. The college partnered with Kraus-Anderson for the project’s construction and ICON Architectural Group for its design.

  • New Jersey Day School Opens New Science & Entrepreneurship Building

    Saddle River Day School (SRDS) in Saddle River, N.J., recently celebrated the grand opening of the new Dr. Kristen Walsh Hall of Science & Entrepreneurship, according to a news release. The school partnered with DIG Architecture on the 32,000 square foot facility, completed on a 17-month construction timeline in time for the beginning of the new school year.