McCarthy completes Parker H. Petit Science Center at GSU
US-based McCarthy Building Companies has completed the new Parker H. Petit Science Center at Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta.
The $119 million, 350,000 square feet, 10-storey building features state-of-the-art dry and wet laboratories, BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs, and a BSL-4 suite. It includes improved research and office space on the fifth through ninth floors, including critical core facilities needed for exploration. The building is also designed to include six general classrooms and 32 department-specific teaching labs and classrooms, including a more than 100-seat auditorium on the first floor.
The building also houses a ‘visualization wall’, a large, 200 million pixel array of computer screens. Scientists can use this wall to view large amounts of data in large-scale projects as wide ranging as public health, where researchers might be interested as to how disease spreads in an urban area, to computer science, where researchers might be curious as to how large screens change the way humans interface with computers.
The building is designed to provide science teaching and research labs for the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Health and Human Sciences. The centre will also be home to Georgia State’s research and education programs in biology, chemistry, nursing, nutrition, physical and respiratory therapies, as well as the Neuroscience Institute and the Institute of Public Health.
Constructing a state-of-the-art laboratory facility in the heart of downtown Atlanta presented an array of challenges, including navigation of road and pedestrian traffic, construction material deliveries, and maintaining a safe and secure site. The team addressed these challenges with gate access supervision, security grade perimeter fencing, 24/7 security personnel and use of a live web-cam surveillance company. These efforts, combined with communication between city, local and campus departments, enabled McCarthy to maintain a safe and injury –free site.
The facility, designed to hold up to 6,000 students and faculty, is scheduled to open in early May 2011.
