Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

SRG Partnership Designs Net Zero Energy Building for OSU Cascades Campus

  • By Matt Jones
  • 06/23/21

Architecture firm SRG Partnership recently announced that it has designed a Net Zero energy building for the Cascades Campus of Oregon State University in Bend, Ore. Edward J. Ray Hall will serve as a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) learning center featuring both interior and exterior active learning spaces. The facility has a Net Zero energy target and a structure made of regionally sourced mass timber.

The 50,000-square-foot, four-story building will be the first to take advantage of a 46-acre site that the university acquired for campus expansion. The site contains a reclaimed pumice mine, and a press release notes that Edward J. Ray Hall will stand at the top of the mine’s steep eastern rim, serving as a gateway between the existing campus and future developments in and around the former mine’s bowl.

Edward J Ray Hall at Oregon State University Cascades Campus

The use of mass timber ties into the university’s commitment to sustainability, using locally sourced renewable materials and leaving a low carbon footprint. The building’s east-west orientation, along with large windows and vertical shading devices, allows it to take advantage of the sun’s position to maximize daylight while reducing glare and summer heat. The roof will feature an array of photovoltaics as a source of on-site renewable solar energy for the building.

The design and prototype process focused on accommodating as wide a variety of education activities as possible to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, social equity, and sustainability. Edward J. Ray Hall serves as a scalable, adaptable proof of concept that will serve as a template for future buildings while leaving plenty of room for adaptation unique to these future buildings’ purpose, location, and conditions.

The total cost of the new facility is estimated at $49 million, and it is scheduled to open in fall 2021. Various donors contributed a total of $10 million to match funds provided by the state.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Can AI Help Build Stronger Communities in Student Housing?

    Student housing success is shifting from operational performance to student experience, with belonging now at the center. A recent 2025 report underscores a growing emphasis on student well-being, community, and engagement, signaling that expectations now extend beyond logistics to ensure students feel supported in their living environments. AI is enabling that shift by reducing administrative workload and giving teams more time to focus on meaningful student engagement.

  • Higher Ed is Betting on New Buildings While Quietly Undermining Their Campuses — Here’s Why

    In this climate, the owner’s representative has changed from a delivery-focused advisor to a strategic campus partner. Institutions are increasingly relying on owner’s reps not just to manage, cope, schedule, and budget, but also help evaluate whether a project should proceed at all.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.