New Science Center

Architectural Description:
The Montgomery College New Science Center is located on the southwest sector of the Maryland Rockville Campus.  The four story building is a direct addition to Science East which is also bridge connected to Science West. 

Each floor contains laboratories, classrooms, and offices.  The majority of the building is for educational purposes.  The new, bigger labs allow the professors to use experiments they were unable to use before, and lecture to a larger group of students at one time.

The New Science Centers transitions and gathering spaces were also designed in detail. 

The northwest entrance opens up to a four story atrium over looked by the roof observatory.  This atrium is used as a transition to the existing Science East building and a student gathering space. 

A green roof surrounds the roof observatory.  The observatory will be used for educational purposes, equipped with a power switch operated sliding roof.

On the northeast entrance there is a small exterior amphitheatre.  The amphitheatre’s main purpose is to provide the students with a place to sit read and gather while keeping in touch with nature.  It will also be used to tie in the existing pond.  Towards the buildings LEED Gold goal, the pond will be used for water retention, collecting roof water run off. 

Building Envelope:
The New Science Center’s façade transitions the existing east and west science center to a more modern feel.  Some brick was used to tie the old in with the new but with building most consists of metal panels and glass.

Maintaining their LEED Gold goal, the glass used has a U-value significantly below maximum code requirements.  Sun shades were added to the south/ southwest sides of the building.   A green roof almost entirely surrounds the atrium which is covered with solar panels.  And a High R-value was used for the roof and wall assemblies.

Wall Assemblies:
Four different wall assemblies were used throughout the building façade. 

The brick façade is your standard cavity wall with 2” airspace, 2” rigid insulation, air barrier, and 8” CMU. 

The building second wall type is comprised of 8”metal studs surround by 5/5” gypsum board on both sides followed by and air barrier, rigid insulation, and composite aluminum metal panels facing the exterior.

The third wall type is a combination of Wall Type 1 and 2, starting the interior with 8” CMU, air barrier, and 2” rigid insulation, followed by the composite aluminum metal panels on the exterior again.

The four wall type is only used around the interstitial space due to the lower R-value of the assembly.  After a steel frame the metal liner panel is used, followed by the rigid insulation and finishing the exterior with ribbed aluminum metal panel.  

Roof Assemblies:
Five different roof assemblies were used.

The five roof assemblies consist of a concrete, rigid insulated roof, a steel deck, concrete filled, rigid insulated roof, a 4” deep vegetated roof, a 9” concrete roof deck with Bitumen membrane, 5” rigid insulation, protective coverboard, geotextile fabric and concrete pavers, and the steel joist roof is topped with the first roof assembly while maintaining a 30” minimum between the metal decking and interior gypsum board.

The 4” vegetated roof is similar to the 9” concrete roof deck assembly simply exterior finished with the vegetated roof tray in opposition to the concrete pavers.

Building Name:        
Montgomery College
Rockville Campus
New Science Center

Location:       
Southwest sector of the Rockville Campus
51 Mannakee Street
Rockville, MD 20850

Site:
Undeveloped
Bound by:
North: Existing Science East building
West:   Campus storm water management pond
South:  South Campus Drive
East:    Existing campus parking lot

Occupancy Type:
The new science center is occupied by Laboratories, classrooms, offices, an atrium, and a roof observatory.

Size:
The four story building and roof observatory is approximately 140,700 square feet, with over 54,000 used for educational purposes.

Number of Stories:   
Four interior stories topped with a roof observatory

Dates of Construction: 
The New Science Center construction starts October 10th 2008 with a projected 460 days duration, ending on July 7th 2010.

Cost Information:
Information is to be withheld for another two months.

Project Delivery Method:
Design Bid Build

Codes:
2006 International Building Code (IBC)
National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA)
1998 International Energy Conservatio Code

Project Team:

Mechanical: The mechanical system consists of a central air handling system, a central chilled water system, a central hot water system, and a laboratory exhaust system.  The central air handling system consists of two custom roof top units.  The units are manifolded together to operate in parallel. The Laboratory exhaust system consists of four central exhaust fans. The water systems utilize two centrifugal chillers and five primary/secondary boilers to supply the campus west loop.
The central air handling system consists of two roof top units manifolded together by a common discharge plenum.  Each unit has dual fans and isolation dampers to isolate one unit from the rest of the system.  There is no return fan because the pressure drop across the outside air section including the heat recovery coil is approximately equal to the pressure drop in the plenum return system.  The return air damper will modulate to maintain the pressurization of the building.  Because of the high percentage of outside air, due to the amount of lab exhaust, there is no relief in the unit.  The only relief is required during economizer mode.  This relief will be discharged from the building through the smoke exhaust fans.
A 12 ft wide corridor runs between the two units connecting them.  The hot water and chilled mains that serve the unit run across the ceiling of the service corridor.  At the end of the corridor, there is a mechanical room that houses the rest of the equipment in the custom penthouse.  The air handler coils will be pulled into the service corridor for cleaning or removal.
The air handling unit consists of the following sections:

• Storm Louver
• Intake Section
• Pre-filter for outside air
• Heart Recovery coil
• Return mixing box with inlet for return air with damper and a pre-filter for the return air.
• Supply fan section with dual fans
• 85% Supply air final filter
• Heating Coil
• Cooling Coil
• Isolation discharge dampers
• Discharge plenum
• Access sections
  

Electrical: The Montgomery College New Science Center's service line is 34.5 KV. The new science center uses a Pepco step down transformer to convert to 460Y/265V which is distributed to the mechanical equipment transformer that converts the voltage to 480/277 V.  All major equipment is served by 480/277 Voltage where the power is stepped down again by 8 transformers to 208Y120 Volts, which supplies the typical plug loads.  Emergency Power is supplied to the building by a 250 KW diesel generator.

Lighting:  Most of the building lighting fixtures are 277 volt fluorescent or compact fluorescent fixtures.  Typical classroom and lab spaces contain 8 to 15 lighting fixtures. Emergency lighting is provided.

Structural:  The typical 3’6” diameter caisson foundation is topped with 5” reinforced slab-on-grade.  The upper levels are then supported by concrete columns surrounded by rectangular drop-panels alternating spans between 31’6” and 21’.  Finally the roof is either comprised of a low albedo roof deck or 4” deep vegetative roof.

Construction: Montgomery College is a design bid build project with URS Corporation as the Construction Manager. The construction is estimated to take approximately one year and nine months. The construction began on October 10th 2008 and is scheduled to be completed by July 7th of 2010.

Fire Suppression:  Montgomery College utilizes a water based fire suppression system.  Including a Combined Standpipe and Sprinkler System, Manual Wet-Type, Class I Standpipe System, Wet-Pipe Sprinkler System, and Dry-Pipe Sprinkler System. 
The Manual Wet-Type, Class I Standpipe System includes NPS 2-1/2 hose connections. Minimal water supply is used to maintain water in standpipes.  Water must be pumped into standpipes to satisfy the demand.
The Wet-Pipe Sprinkler System and Dry Pipe Sprinkler System consist of automatic sprinklers attached to the piping with water connected to the water supply for the wet-pipe system and compressed air for the dry pipe system. The wet-pipe system allows the water to discharge immediately.  Opening the dry-pipe system releases the air pressure allowing the water to open the value and the discharges through the sprinklers.
The Combined system is supplied from the standpipe system for both standpipe and sprinkler system.

Telecommunications: Horizontal cable and its connecting hardware provide the means of transporting signals between the telecommunications equipment room.  This cabling and its connecting hardware are called “permanent link” a term that is used in the testing protocols. A minimum of two telecommunications outlet/connectors are provided for each work area.  Splitters are used as part of the optical fiber cabling. 

Transportation: Vertical circulation through the building is provided by one elevator located near the junction of the new science center and the existing science center east.  There are also three stairwells, two for emergency purposes located at opposite ends of the new science center, and one used as the main stairwell through the atrium.

Montgomery College

Rockville Campus, MD