Skender, serving as base building and interior construction manager, has broken ground on Loyola University Chicago’s new 10,000-square-foot engineering science flex laboratory located near the intersection of North Broadway and Sheridan Road. The mission of the new single-story building is to provide open space, movable furniture and equipment and a collaborative environment for the engineering science program’s active learning framework. The state-of-the-art facility will innovate how the university utilizes available space.

This experimentation hub will not only provide engineering and other STEM students with opportunities to invent, investigate and create, but also allow the public to observe and join the community through the front of the building’s large glass façade. Designed to put engineering on display and provide natural light, the glass façade utilizes electrochromic technology, a form of smart glass that changes with daylight sensors that monitor the sunlight’s intensity. The glass becomes less transparent as the sun sets, reducing solar heat gain and glare.

Skender is working in collaboration with SmithGroupJJR, Elara Engineering and Thornton Tomasetti to successfully complete this unprecedented, tech-forward facility for Loyola. The lab is scheduled to open in summer 2018.