Florida Polytechnic University IST Building

An Innovation Centerpiece

Fifty miles southwest of Orlando, in an area that until recently had grazing cows, the Innovation, Science and Technology Building forms the centerpiece of the new Florida Polytechnic campus.

Collaborating with Santiago Calatrava and Alfonso Architects, we provided structural design services for a 160,000-square-foot academic building on the new 170-acre campus. It provides spaces for interdisciplinary classrooms, laboratories, offices, meeting rooms and a large amphitheater.

Highlights

• Completed in 2015, as one of the first buildings on the site the IST building helped establish the design scheme for all future structures for the first phase of campus master planning.
• The two-story teaching facility features a prominent glass and steel cupola with a signature operable louver system. Eighty-four arched aluminum “leaves” can be raises or lowered to shade the upper level terraces and arcades at the building perimeter. 
• The initial concept for the louvers called for two 250-foot-long movable arches to raise and lower the louvers. Working with the project team, the structural engineers developed an alternative in which individual hydraulic pistons operate each of the 94 louvers. This allowed for a lighter, less-expensive support structure and minimized the need for custom parts.
• The structure’s concrete foundation is reinforced with stone columns and a series of cast-in-place, exposed concrete portal frames.