S building opens up for 09/10 school year

Incoming BC students might be tempted to run to their science classes instead of away from them when they see the new science building-better known as the S building.
Standing at three stories high, the facility will include classrooms for the life sciences and chemistry classes.
According to a news release from BC’s spokesman, Bob Adams, there is a high demand for classes in both the life sciences and chemistry curriculums, which is why the classes were selected to move into the new building. Students studying either subject have the opportunity to experience the building’s new innovations.
However, this decision meant that other sciences, such as physics, were left out, leaving other departments and students envious.
Nonetheless, the S building is a great achievement for the entire science department and the school as a whole.
The $34 million building is now the 11th instructional facility on campus and covers 64,000 square feet. The Miller-Hull Partnership designed the building and the general contractor was M.A. Mortenson Company.
The building opened on March 11, 2009 and the public was invited to marvel at its green technology during an open house.
Among many of its green innovations, the S building boasts an energy efficient exterior that minimizes light pollution and the “Heat Island Effect,” which is when buildings reflect the sun’s heat into the earth’s atmosphere.
Along with that, it is constructed of environmentally friendly materials, such as bamboo, and uses natural light. The landscape also allows the building to conserve water by letting it drain naturally to the Kelsey Creek Watershed.
Its green features helped the building earn a silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, also known as LEED.
Students have also noticed the green technology that the building provides.
“The thing I noticed that was green was in the bathroom…an energy saving flush system,” said Michaela Wynter, a second year BC student who has taken two classes in the new building.
Along with a high tech bathroom, the facility includes a comfortable lounge for those students who need to relax or take naps in comfy chairs in between studying chemical reactions.
The S building also includes five high-tech classrooms, 16 advanced laboratories, including DNA- sequencer and scanning-electron-microscope labs, and a study center, encouraging the highest quality of education for BC students.
“The new building has Macs, so it’s a lot more interactive. They use computers a lot more. More technology,” said Wynter.
The building is just one of the many new changes at BC that has occurred this past year, but it is certainly one the school can be proud of. The S building creates great strides forward-both environmentally and academically-and most BC students approve.
“All of the innovative ways to conserve energy and to be environmentally friendly, it’s really great. The facilities are beautiful-top notch,” said student Heather Norton to Joshua Hicks from the Bellevue Reporter.
Returning students and new students shouldn’t feel reluctant in registering for their science classes. If anything can make a science lab more exciting, it is environmentally friendly technology.