The 6,000 square foot-plus facility will house an exterior laboratory, two indoor labs, a machine shop, a conference and demonstration room and offices for staff and graduate students. Groundwork will begin in January 2009 and full-scale construction will kick off in March.
SERC directors expect the structure to be fully occupied on day one—scheduled opening is June 2010—despite the fact it will be double the square area of SERC’s existing quarters in the University Annex.
Adhering to the sustainability principles of both Humboldt State and SERC, the new building will meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold equivalent standards, as does the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building that opened in 2007.
The new research center will be situated atop Cluster Court, between B Street and the west side of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building. The design-builder is Beacom Construction of Fortuna.
Financing comes from the estate of the late Dr. Louis W. Schatz, a long-time benefactor of HSU who provided funding in 1989 to establish SERC. At the time, Schatz was president of General Plastics Manufacturing, Tacoma, Wash.
SERC is affiliated with the University’s Environmental Resources Engineering program, which provides undergraduate and graduate students with rare opportunities to gain direct experience with cutting-edge, sustainable energy technologies.