Building & Facilities
The Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building was carefully designed and engineered to facilitate advanced molecular-level engineering research.Located on the former site of Cunningham Hall within the engineering and science core of the UW campus, the building is ideally situated to catalyze the cross-departmental research and educational collaborations that are necessary for building an interdisciplinary research program in this field. It features an open layout designed for shared research space and a dedicated molecular and nanotechnology instrumentation lab.
The building was specially sited to minimize vibration and electromagnetic interference to permit usage of sensitive instrumentation. The design maximizes the ground contact lab space to fully exploit this location, which will eventually allow consolidation of molecular research instrumentation across campus into a shared user facility (see Molecular Analysis Facility). The upper floors are designed to enable easy reconfiguration to accommodate the evolving research landscape and the open layout promotes interaction and collaboration.
Groundbreaking for the 160,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility took place on October 9, 2009. The building will be completed in two phases and work on the first 89,000 square-foot phase is nearing completion, to be completed in June 2012. For additional photos, details on energy efficiency, and updates on construction progress, see the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building site.
