Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center at Lafayette College Celebrates Grand Opening

  • 10/22/19

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The grand opening of the Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center (RISC) on the campus of Lafayette College in Easton, PA, took place in late September. The five-story, 104,000-square-foot academic science and laboratory building features a basement, laboratories, a vivarium, greenhouse, classrooms, and administrative spaces for the Biology, Neuroscience, and Computer Science departments.

The building brings together Lafayette’s biology, computer science, environmental science, and neuroscience departments to promote the integration of different sciences and to foster collaboration and innovation. In addition to academic departments, the building houses the Dyer IDEAL Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education and will also connect to the Acopian Engineering Center building.

Lafayette College Integrated Science Center 500

The Harman Group provided structural engineering services for the $75-million project, the largest capital project in the school’s history. Turner Construction Company is the builder and Boston-based architecture firm, Payette, designed the building to encourage collaborative learning amongst the college’s science and engineering departments.

Situated on the north side of the campus’ quad, adjacent to the Anderson Courtyard, RISC is set into a hillside in between two existing buildings, requiring a unique structural configuration of the five-story building. The building terraces down the steep slope with the main entrance from Anderson Courtyard into the third floor with two floors below and three floors visible from the courtyard. The foundation system employs spread and mat footings, underpinning of the existing buildings, and replacement of an aging 15-foot-tall retaining wall on the slope. The structure is a concrete slab on metal deck and composite beam floor system with a steel superstructure. A steel vierendeel truss system provides open column-free space, connecting the lobby to the exterior lower courtyard, supporting the brick exterior wall on the south side. The building was also strategically designed with vibration control to allow the operation of sensitive research equipment in the lab spaces.

Featured

  • Los Angeles City College Breaks Ground on New Administration, Workforce Building

    Los Angeles City College (LACC) in Los Angeles, Calif., recently broke ground on a new $72-million administrative facility, according to a news release. The Cesar Chavez Administration and Workforce Building will stand four stories, cover 67,230 square feet, and play home to a wide variety of the school’s educational and administrative services.

  • University of Kansas Opens $400M Football Stadium Reconstruction

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently announced that the $400-million reconstruction of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is complete in time for the 2025 football season, according to a news release. The university partnered with Turner Construction Company on the project.

  • Case Study Highlights Texas District’s Campus Security Upgrades

    The Taft Independent School District near Corpus Christi, Texas, recently partnered with Intech Southwest Services to revamp its campus security technology system, according to a news release. Intech has released a case study on its website detailing the process that advanced the district’s technology by more than 20 years in less than three weeks.

  • Pittsburgh High School Upgrades Athletics Facilities’ Technology

    Plum Senior High School in Pittsburgh, Penn., recently partnered with South-Dakota-based Daktronics through the We’re All Mustangs Here Foundation to upgrade the technology in its athletics facilities, according to a news release. Daktronics designed, built, and installed new LED video displays and finished the project in time for the beginning of the 2025 high-school football season.