The Center for Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies (CBEIS) is a new 124,371-SF educational facility for the School of Architecture and Planning, the School of Engineering’s Civil Engineering and Transportation programs, and the National Transportation Center. The three-story, LEED Gold Certified building includes offices, conference rooms, laboratory spaces, model shops, architecture studios, student and faculty lounges, jury rooms, and support areas.
The unique features of this project range from rare structural laboratory features to green technology applications. The state-of-the-art structural laboratory houses equipment that can only be found at a few other universities in the region. The building is equipped with one of only two earthquake simulators on the East Coast, which can reproduce seismic activity up to 9.0 on the Richter scale. CBEIS also uses solar energy collection devices (both solar electric and solar thermal) as a demonstration of sustainable energy production and to offset a fraction of the building’s energy consumption.
During construction, Morgan State awarded Barton Malow two additional projects on the site: the new Central Plant and a 406-space parking garage to support CBEIS and adjacent University facilities.
Early Input from End Users
Early buy-in from end-users became irreplaceable input in complicated lab spaces in CBEIS. When the stud walls were installed and we began MEP wall rough-in, we walked end-users through the areas to help us confirm the equipment to order, ensure we installed the correct MEP equipment each space, and streamline our logistics coordination of each room. The early input ensured that only minimal changes would be needed after the rooms were complete, resulting in cost savings and avoiding any schedule delays.
