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Entry plaza of the Biomedical Sciences and
Engineering Education Facility at the
Universities at Shady Grove.
Glass façade with sail-like sunscreens.
A Healthy Regard
A Healthy Regard
for Design
for Design
Biomedical Building at the Universities
at Shady Grove Promotes Biophilia
by Ronald O’Rourke
The newly built Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (BSE) The project’s designers were Cooper Carry, an architecture
Education Facility at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) and design firm with offices in Washington, DC, New York, and
has achieved LEED NC-2009 Platinum certification—the Atlanta, and Lake | Flato, an architecture firm with offices in
LEED system’s highest level of certification. But the project’s San Antonio and Austin. The firms have collaborated on several
environmental design chops don’t end there: The six-story, projects over the last decade. For the BSE project, Cooper Carry
228,000-square-foot building, consisting of two masonry-clad was the architect of record and the interior designer, while Lake |
wings connected by a glassy, light-filled atrium, was additionally Flato was the associate architect and design lead, as well as
designed to promote among its occupants a sense of wellbeing the sustainable design lead. Key team members were Brent
and biophilia, a term that refers to a hypothesized innate human Amos, AIA, LEED AP, and Mark Jensen, AIA, LEED AP, both
desire or tendency to commune with nature. Consequently, principals at Cooper Carry, Rick Fredlund, AIA, LEED AP, a
in addition to its sustainable-design features, the project is project manager at Cooper Carry, and Ryan Jones, AIA, LEED
intended to advance environmental connectivity, user health, AP BD+C, a principal at Lake | Flato.
and productivity through the experience of the building itself.
34 A HEALTHY REGARD FOR DESIGN