McCarthy has begun construction for the new 196,000-square-foot, five-story Health Sciences Biomedical Research Facility located on a 3.3-acre site within the School of Medicine campus at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla, Calif. The project team is targeting LEED platinum certification.

Designed by ZGF Architects LLP, the research building will fit within the modern design context of the academic mall on the School of Medicine campus, with its exterior incorporating a combination of concrete, curtainwall, metal panels and terra cotta cladding. Distinctive design features of the building include dynamic, computer-controlled exterior solar shading systems on the east, west and south facades, which McCarthy says represents the most extensive use of this type of shading by any building in the UC system.

Boone Hellmann, campus architect for UCSD, heads the Facilities Design and Construction office charged with implementing the $105 million project, with James Gillie, senior director of construction services for UCSD, supervising construction and Pnina Goldberg charged with overall project management. Completion is scheduled for August 2013.

“We’re expecting this to be the highest performing and most sustainably designed research lab on the UCSD campus and quite possibly in the country,” says Hellmann. “McCarthy and ZGF have been working closely with us to devise a customized project delivery system to help ensure its success.”

According to Bob Betz, project director for McCarthy, the most challenging aspect of construction will be the lab space and the highly MEP-intensive areas of the overhead construction. Building Information Modeling (BIM) will be utilized extensively to help in the coordination of these spaces.