Constructed to unify the Department of Computer Science with the new Department of Information Science, under one roof, the new four-story building creates space for faculty offices, a lecture hall, and state-of-the-art teaching and research labs for a range of computer information disciplines. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the structure features several communal spaces that encourage collaboration. The space is enclosed by a glass façade with custom exterior perforated stainless steel panels.
Welliver collaborated with the architect and owner on the development of the project from the start. After providing comprehensive pre-construction services, which included aggressive value engineering exercises, it was evident the project was over budget and the custom exterior curtain wall was a major contributing factor. We worked closely with the Pritzker Prize winning architectural team and owner to create a design-assist bid package. They selected a glass contractor prior to the completion of the final design, which ultimately resulted in 60% cost savings.
1/3+
of the building space is research and teaching labs, including specialized labs for cyber security, human-computer interaction, computational sustainability, robotics, and computer vision.
