Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming "The Ecological Engineer: Glumac," a book offering a comprehensive look at the unique projects, processes, and personalities behind the success of Glumac (http://glumac.com/), an award-winning full-service mechanical, electrical, and plumbing consulting engineering firm specializing in the cost-effective, sustainable design of commercial, institutional, health-care, and advanced-technology facilities worldwide. For more information on the book, visit Ecotone Publishing at www.ecotonedesign.com/.

Its airy, light-filled atrium is the perfect place to study geometric modeling, RF- (radio-frequency-) circuit design, and countless other technical subjects. It also is a great place to collaborate with fellow students, researchers, visiting scholars, and faculty.

Located on the north side of the Oregon State University (OSU) campus (in Corvallis, Ore.), the Kelley Engineering Center is home to the rapidly growing School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. From sky bridges and hallway alcoves to glass-walled conference rooms and graduate-student offices clustered around research laboratories, the 153,000-sq-ft building provides classrooms and work spaces for more than 150 faculty members and 300 graduate students. As designed and built, the center signifies a dramatic departure from most academic engineering buildings: Its soaring, transparent atrium provides ample spaces for interaction and collaboration, complete with a café and open study areas. This central space also serves as a mechanism to bring daylight and natural ventilation to interior labs and offices, reducing energy costs while achieving a comfortable academic teaching and research environment that fully communicates sustainability.

Glumac provided sustainable-engineering-design services, teaming with Yost Grube Hall Architects (YGH) and Skanska USA to achieve the first LEED Gold research building on the West Coast.

The four-story building also represents the centerpiece of an ongoing push by OSU to become one of the top 25 engineering schools in the United States. The university's College of Engineering understood that one path to a top-tier program would be attracting distinguished professors and outstanding students while boosting its research to retain existing talent within the school. Enter Martin N. Kelley, a 1950 OSU civil-engineering graduate. His $20 million donation (along with $20 million in matching funds from the state of Oregon and $5 million in private gifts) served as the catalyst for construction of a new OSU engineering center that would bear his name.

It was established early that the center would emphasize shared resources, places to foster communication among multidisciplinary teams—and opportunities for dialogue and to brainstorm new ideas that translate into cutting-edge research. Upon the project's launch, Ron Adams, dean of engineering, noted: "Today, innovation is all about collaboration, teamwork, and new ideas. This new building is designed to help spark those ideas by ensuring that the people inside connect. Because out of these connections comes collaboration, and that is the key underpinning of innovation."1

Since its grand opening on Oct. 29, 2005, the Kelley Engineering Center has become an effective recruiting tool to attract top talent and home to many high-profile research projects, such as a private startup software firm where OSU faculty and students work directly with the company's executives. Other successful research collaborations include development of the world's first transparent electronics with OSU electrical engineers and avian ecologists working together to track the migration routes of songbirds using miniature cell phones.

Environmental Objectives
Beyond addressing critical space needs with a modern facility that would drive world-class engineering research, the university mandated that the $45 million project meet high green-building standards with at least a LEED Silver rating. The new center also was required to highlight advanced systems—efficient climate control, standby and UPS (uninterruptible power supply) power, and Wi-Fi systems—that were understood and appreciated by occupants. Finally, the design had to respect the historic character of the OSU campus.

Together, the university and the design team realized that achieving LEED Gold certification was easily within reach of project goals. Given Oregon's ideal climate for natural ventilation, one key goal was to bring outside air into as many interior spaces as possible. Designers also planned to maximize daylight in all areas not containing sensitive equipment. These measures, combined with several more sustainable-design strategies, could result in using 50-percent less energy than comparable science centers—making it the greenest academic engineering building in the nation.

Design Overview
After working together on renovation of OSU's Dixon Recreation Center, an indoor practice facility, Glumac and YGH interviewed for and won the contract to design the Kelley Engineering Center. At Dixon, they had successfully incorporated several innovative HVAC technologies within a very constrained budget, including natural ventilation for all gymnasiums and the aerobics room and heat reclaim for the pool.