Dome Sweet Dome

New Planetarium Space For UTA

By Lesley Hensell

Manhattan Construction is working to complete the new Chemistry and Physics Building at the University of Texas at Arlington

Just as the planets revolve around the sun, the new chemistry and physics building at the University of Texas at Arlington revolves around a state-of-the-art planetarium.

The 60-ft. domed room, which will be used for classroom space, is just one of the high-tech features of the $39.9 million building currently under construction. The three-story, 123,000-sq.-ft. building will also house instructional and research laboratories. The project broke ground in March 2004 and is expected to reach completion in December.

Like most other University of Texas System campuses, UT-Arlington is dominated by blonde- and beige-colored brick buildings. This project, however, adds a twist to the campus palette by adding limestone and aluminum panels to create a high-end, finished look, said Sean Garman, construction contract administrator for Perkins & Will, the Dallas-based architects on the project. In fact, the project's designer - Jerry Johnson from the firm's Chicago office - seems to be heavily influenced by the materials prevalent at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.

"We were charged with creating a new signature building for the campus," Garman said. "These new materials, plus the rounded exterior wall that reflects the location of the planetarium, really stand out from the other buildings. At the same time, we've used other materials that keep the project in harmony with its surroundings."

The 170-seat planetarium serves as the building's centerpiece. Intended for use by the public and students, the room features special chairs that recline 35 degrees, offer a writing tablet arm and include a return air vent for the air conditioning system, Garman said.

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"Because planetariums must be very quiet, we have to dump air in from above, and it filters throughout the dome," Garman said. "So there is always fresh air in the room."

In addition, the planetarium will feature one of only three Digistar 3 systems in the country. The completely digital system includes six digital projectors and a digital sound system.

Above the planetarium, the building will offer high-end conference rooms with glass walls, wood finishes and a balcony overlooking the campus. A three-story glass curtain wall encloses a large atrium, which will welcome the public and provide lounge space for students.

But the most challenging construction issues of the project arose not in creating these extraordinary public spaces, but in building the laboratory spaces, which will be seen by few visitors.

To accommodate extensive research projects, the building includes more electrical and mechanical services than a typical office or classroom building, said Ron Smith, project manager of Houston-based Manhattan Construction Co.

"In fact, the mechanical sub on this contract represents about 30 percent of the entire contract value," Smith said.

When the building first broke ground, great care had to be taken in dealing with existing underground utilities. A crawl space and tunnel already ran under the building's proposed footprint to accommodate the campus' system of pipes and wires.

"It took a great deal of planning to work around all of the issues with the foundation system and piers as well as a lot of cooperation between several companies," Smith said.

Once the foundation was poured, the construction team created an 8-in. floating floor slab for a portion of the first floor. This area will house a high-energy physics lab created for detector construction, which requires the use of heavy equipment. The floating slab was jacked up, creating a 2-in. air cushion that separates it from the building's structure.

"That way, if a 4-ton piece of equipment is dropped on the floor, it doesn't shake the building and cause problems with other experiments," Garman said.

The building's electrical rooms come with a twist as well. Each is being encapsulated with electro-magnetic shielding of .25-in. aluminum plate to prevent building low-frequency resonance from escaping the rooms and interfering with scientific experiments.

The building also features an unusually large amount of laboratory casework, from the 1,200-sq.-ft. computer farm to the nanotechnology lab and the plasma lab.

The prevalence of fume hoods and other air-flow mechanisms required significant coordination for utilities. The team also had to plan early on to avoid problems with above-ceiling clearances, Smith said.

In its first decade, the building is expected to create a positive economic impact of $232 million, with slightly more than $131 million of that amount attributed to its actual construction, according to UTA. But perhaps even more significant will be the impression it makes on potential donors and grant-makers, Garman said.

"The conference room in particular was created with folks from NASA and other grant-makers in mind," he said. "The design and finishes are all intended to show how seriously UTA takes science and research."