The Universities at Shady Grove BSE

The Universities at Shady Grove is a consortium of nine public universities from the UMD system. The LEED Platinum Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Facility (BSE) is a six-story, 209,455 SF building housing teaching laboratories, active learning classrooms, lecture halls, maker spaces, academic offices, and a dental clinic that provides dental care to the community.

The BSE reconnects the campus to its ecological context through rehabilitation of the adjacent wetlands, strategies that educate visitors, biophilic design that nurtures wellness and comfort, and synergies between passive and active systems to maximize performance.

The centerpiece of the BSE is an ecological spine that runs between two wings and doubles as the building’s central living room for student collaboration. This atrium setting becomes an extension of the natural environment, celebrating the biodiversity of the wetland and forest through spatial diversity, botanical integration, harvested daylight, protected viewsheds, and natural materials. The atrium maximizes views into labs, clinics, and classrooms – celebrating the client’s primary objective of putting science on display.

Some of the building’s sustainability goals include:

- Promote ECOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY AND FUNCTION across the campus, as well as cultural connectivity with the greater community.

- Teach students and other users about BUILDING PERFORMANCE by showcasing building systems and learning opportunities.

- SET AN EXAMPLE for sustainable design—both in the Mid-Atlantic region and globally—for the teaching lab program, design, construction, and operations.

- Be a leader in CONSERVING RESOURCES, including water, energy, and materials.

- Include BIOPHILIC DESIGN to enhance human health and happiness by celebrating our innate human attraction to natural systems and elements.

- Reduce stormwater runoff and improve runoff water quality.

- Install visible renewable energy systems to educate users and visitors on the building’s performance.

Some the building’s design strategies include:

- The BSE incorporates a diverse array of high-performance mechanical systems and lab equipment, focused on long-term operating costs and minimizing energy.

- All rainfall on the site is collected into underground cisterns or filtered into bioswales before being introduced into the wetland, minimizing the impact on the watershed. Through rainwater harvesting, condensate reuse, and foundation dewatering, the BSE is designed to offset over 1.3 million gallons of water per year.

- Solar panels installed on the building as well as the related parking garages promote energy conservation and become a showcase for students.