A Four-Story Integrated Research and Instructional Center

The University of Delaware’s new Patrick T. Harker Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Laboratory is designed to engage students and faculty in an environment that supports integrated teaching, learning, research, and the exploration of real-world problems and opportunities. The four-story, 200,000-square-foot building includes classrooms, teaching labs, core research facilities, and space for the university’s Energy Institute and the Delaware Environmental Institute. Classrooms and labs are located side-by-side, allowing students to move freely between the two types of spaces in small groups.

The $140 million facility also includes microscopy/imaging suites, a materials lab, and a 9,000-square-foot clean room. Flexible and redundant HVAC, plumbing, power, and lighting systems serve the lab spaces; and numerous sustainable measures are included in the engineering design. Work at the university also includes a new campus chilled water plant.