The 235,000 gross square-foot academic research building, which OSU calls a “catalyst for discovery”, is located in the heart of the university’s science and engineering neighborhood. Actually two buildings, it features  a six-story tower for offices and theoretical research connected by bridges to a four-story lab wing with experimental research and teaching spaces. Each floor of the building provides laboratory neighborhoods with  research space for 400+ scientists/engineers and  includes a central core of cold rooms, conference rooms, student offices, centralized services, multiple lounges with ample interactive spaces to facilitate research collaborations across disciplines.

The overall design provides a flexible architectural framework dedicated to cutting edge interdisciplinary research in the chemical sciences and engineering, including:

• chemical/materials synthesis and characterization,
• cell and tissue culture, and
• biological processing and characterization

CBEC was built with the sustainable design practices of Labs 21 and is LEED® Silver certified.

OSU described  CBEC is an investment in innovation and discovery, that supports the work of creative engineers and scientists in doing leading-edge work and recruiting outstanding faculty and top students.

OSU received the recognition during COAA awards luncheon on November 10^th.  The award promotes leadership, professionalism, and management excellence of owners involved in the design and construction process.