Saiful Bouquet is providing full structural design services for the new $126M 183,000 sft. Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Building. The project serves UCI’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering, the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Science, and the School of Physical Sciences. It is designed to achieve LEED Platinum equivalent rating. The structure will be comprised of 113,000 assignable square feet of room that will host transdisciplinary projects in line with two major themes: biomedicine for human health, and energy use and the environment. The building houses research laboratories, laboratory support facilities, auditorium style class rooms, and space for faculty and academic supports.
SB explored various structural systems at the early stages of the design, which included steel construction as well as a concrete two-way slab, beam, column system, and a concrete flat plate system. Concrete systems generally have a better vibration resistance than steel structures because of their increase mass and stiffness. A concrete flat plate system was finally selected as the most cost-effective system. The building floor slabs were designed for strict vibration criteria required for research. Cast-in-place concrete shear walls were used as the seismic resisting system for the building. The walls were located in such a way so as not to impact the functional layout of the building.
The project is being delivered using a design-build delivery system and following a very fast-track schedule.
