This Center’s unique design orig­i­nat­ed from the School’s vision of attract­ing pas­sion­ate stu­dent par­tic­i­pa­tion to inter­act in a thriv­ing nat­ur­al sci­ence com­mu­ni­ty and “liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry” of stu­dents and fac­ul­ty as they explore biol­o­gy, chem­istry, and physics. The Center’s 21st cen­tu­ry edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram is inte­grat­ed with­in a rel­a­tive­ly con­fined site in which the build­ing func­tions both as a des­ti­na­tion and as con­nec­tion. Its forms suc­cess­ful­ly cre­ate a frontage to stu­dent move­ment with­in the cen­tral quad­ran­gle as well as rein­forc­ing the sym­bol­ic entry dri­ve­way into the Puna­hou campus.

The building’s plan, uti­liz­ing two inte­ri­or court­yards, is based on “mak­ing sci­ence vis­i­ble”, with trans­paren­cy between fac­ul­ty offices and stu­dent spaces fos­ter­ing dia­logue and dis­creet super­vi­sion of inde­pen­dent work. Offices are placed along the perime­ter to take advan­tage of nat­ur­al light, while inte­ri­or cor­ri­dors ter­mi­nate in win­dows cre­at­ing a visu­al con­nec­tion with the land­scape beyond. The facility’s design incor­po­rates the lat­est con­cepts in mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy and flex­i­ble wall con­fig­u­ra­tions as well as best-prac­tice ener­gy con­ser­va­tion and build­ing main­te­nance features.