LOCATION: Orangeburg, SC
PROJECT SIZE: 87,000 SQ FT
PROJECT COST: $17,700,000
Pursuing USGBC LEED Silver Certification
The Freelon Group has partnered with McMillan Smith & Partners to design the new 87,000 Sq. Ft. Engineering and Computer Science Complex on the campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC. The new complex will include classroom and laboratory spaces for the Colleges of Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technology. Environmentally sustainable design strategies have been implemented for this design and the project is pursuing USGBC LEED Silver Certification.
The project will consolidate teaching, research, and office spaces that are currently scattered in a number of older buildings on campus. Several science and technology academic departments will be housed in the complex: Mathematics, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering and Industrial Technology & Industrial Technology Education.
This highly efficient design is organized as a double loaded corridor on three levels with faculty offices and labs and classrooms to either side. Faculty offices overlook the campus and provide a more finely textured fenestration for the building façade. Opposite are classrooms and labs of varying sizes and types, from instrumentation and nuclear engineering labs to industrial technology and materials testing labs. A 150-seat auditorium is located on the ground floor adjacent to the main lobby. Industrial technology labs extend from the rear of the building’s main volume to isolate hazardous materials and exhaust systems.
The building will sit on axis with the SCSU’s pedestrian brick yard, forming the western edge to the heart of campus. The rectangular volume of the building takes advantage of site geometries to form a triangular campus green between the building and the street. The space and texture of the brick yard is extended across the street to establish an entry plaza to the new building. The volume of the auditorium sits forward of the main building mass, helping define the entrance and one edge of the triangular campus green. The building materials reflect its organization with labs clad in a metal skin that is folded up and over the building to shelter the brick clad office volume and articulate a sheltered lobby entrance.
Design Architect/Architect of Record: Freelon
Associate Architect: McMillan Smith & Partners
Pursuing USGBC LEED® Silver Certification
Significant Attributes:
- Green roofs and underground cistern to collect rainwater for irrigation
- Pint flow urinals and dual-flush toilets, aerators for sinks, low-flow shower head
- Paperless commissioning process
- Low-mercury lamp types throughout building
- Display panel in the lobby showing how sustainable building systems work in this building