New Cal Poly Research and Innovation Center includes features for a COVID-19 world

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s newest addition to its campus, The William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation, is currently under construction.

The four-story, 103,800-sf Center is dedicated to undergraduate students who engage in faculty-mentored research each year and work side-by-side with professors. The Frost Center will bring three colleges together under one roof: the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences. It is designed to support the educational priorities of a growing student and faculty population, promote interdisciplinary communities, and provide academic space.

Included within the building are 19 flexible laboratory and teaching spaces, large general-purpose classrooms, collaboration areas, faculty/staff offices, a recording studio, editing bays, a high-end computer lab, and a teaching kitchen. The teaching kitchen is showcased on the first floor and is highly visible from the atrium.

The modularly planned laboratories provide flexibility for any future changes and can be combined to produce large, open laboratories or subdivided to produce small instrument or special-use laboratories. A “big room” for the College of Liberal Arts will give students a space where they can create, perform, test, record, and display their work for passersby along the adjacent hallways and exterior pathways.

Passive design strategies and natural ventilation will create a healthy building for occupants. 100% outside air from air handling units and operable windows in offices allow the building to avoid the recirculation of air that might provide an avenue for airborne exposure to viruses such as COVID-19.

The project is designed to achieve LEED Gold and includes sustainable features such as passive heating and cooling strategies, will consume 30% less potable water, and will have the capacity to accommodate future rooftop solar panels.

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The William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation is slated for completion in late 2021.