The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) recently broke ground on its Resnick Sustainability Resource Center. Designed by the Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign, the 79,500-square-foot Resnick Center will be a makerspace for scientists and a hub for research on climate and sustainability. When it opens in 2024, the building will bring together experts from physical sciences, life sciences, and engineering disciplines in shared spaces, giving them access to instrumentation that will help advance climate solutions.
“We cannot continue to raise generations in a world that is heating up, kids are choking up, and so much of our planet is burning up,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said at the groundbreaking. “This is a moral moment, and so we want to celebrate this moment of contribution.”
A timber-framed atrium will house the center’s social and collaborative spaces. Incorporating a mass timber grid shell, the atrium’s undulating glass curtain wall will flood the multi-story space with natural light. This transparent design aims to put “science on display,” according to a statement from CannonDesign.
The building’s interior spaces include a biosphere engineering facility, a solar science and catalysis center, a remote sensing center, a translational science facility, teaching labs, and lecture and interactive learning spaces. Scientists and graduate students won’t be the only beneficiaries of the new building. On the second floor, the center will house undergrad classrooms and labs, and every first-year undergrad will take at least one class in the building, educating them on the importance of climate action and sustainability.
The Resnick Sustainability Resource Center is made possible by a $750 million gift to Caltech in 2019 by billionaire philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company.
Building Team:
Owner and/or developer: Caltech
Design architect and architect of record: Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign
MEP engineer: AEI
Structural engineer: Saiful Bouquet
General contractor/construction manager: Hensel Phelps
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
AGC: Construction unemployment reaches 19.2%
Unemployment in the construction sector climbed to a “horrendous” 19.2 percent (not-seasonally adjusted) as an additional 59,000 construction workers lost their jobs in May according to new federal data, said construction economist Ken Simonson today.
| Aug 11, 2010
Who are the top urban thinkers?
Planetizen is creating a list of the most important people who have shaped urban places, and we want to know what you think.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler, HOK, HDR among the nation's leading reconstruction design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 100 Reconstruction Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler, Arup, HOK among the largest office sector design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Office Design firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Callison strengthens retail design presence with RYA acquisition
Callison LLC on June 1 acquired RYA Design Consultancy, a Dallas-based retail architecture and design firm with offices in New York City. The new “Callison RYA Studio” will merge staff and clients into Callison ’s existing retail practice at their Dallas and New York offices.
| Aug 11, 2010
RSMeans/RCD forecast 14% drop in hospital construction for 2009
RSMeans forecasts a 14% drop in hospital construction in 2009 compared to 2008, with $17.1 billion in registered hospital projects as of June 30, 2009. The Reed Construction Data unit finds renovation of healthcare facilities increasing, from 36% of projects in 2008, to 40% of projects in the pipeline in the first six months of 2009.
| Aug 11, 2010
Suffolk Construction-Marcobay Construction form partnership to target Southeast projects
Two construction leaders, Suffolk Construction and Marcobay Construction, have joined forces to win multiple high profile projects in the Southeast.
| Aug 11, 2010
Prism-shaped design unveiled for five-star hotel in Saudi Arabia
Goettsch Partners has been commissioned by Saudi Oger Ltd. to design a new five-star, 214-key business hotel in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As a design-build assignment, Saudi Oger is serving as the contractor, selected by developer Rayadah Investment Company. The project is sited on Parcel 1.08, one of the first 10 parcels currently under development in the massive new master-planned district.
| Aug 11, 2010
Data center construction costs are down, according to a study by Environmental Systems Design
The current economic crisis has an up-side for owners of mission-critical facilities: On average, it costs less today to construct a new data center than it did in late 2007, according to a study by Environmental Systems Design (ESD). ESD found that the prices of feeder and cable have dropped by more than half, major data center equipment by 12%, labor and materials by 19.6%, and shipping and handling by 15% from the fourth quarter of 2007 to July 15, 2009.
