The Center for Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies (CBEIS) is a new 124,371-SF educational facility for Morgan State University’s School of Architecture and Planning, School of Engineering’s Civil Engineering and Transportation programs, and 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 unique 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 provided critical input for the complicated lab spaces in CBEIS. When the stud walls were installed and we began MEP wall rough-in, we walked stakeholders through the areas to help us confirm equipment sizing and placement, ensure each space had the correct MEP systems, and streamline our logistics coordination of each room. The early input ensured that minimal changes would be needed after the rooms were complete, resulting in cost savings and avoiding any schedule delays.
