New Engineering Building on Centennial Campus Has Green Roof

    RALEIGH, NC, August 01, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The first building on NC State University's Centennial Campus to include a green roof has been completed.

The 248,000-square foot Engineering Building III will begin accepting students in August as part of the beginning of the new academic calendar year.

The roof of the building, which tops the high bay annex, consists of 10 different drought resistant plans and will save the university an estimated 25-50 percent on heating and cooling costs. The roof also creates a physically pleasing environment that retains more rainfall, eliminates the need for weed control and negates the need to use harsh chemicals. In addition, the green roof is expected to reduce noise pollution by 10 decibels.

Engineering Building III is part of a complex of buildings on Centennial Campus dedicated to providing space to the College of Engineering, one of the largest programs at the university. The building is home to the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which is a joint program with UNC-Chapel Hill. Two other buildings in the complex house the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Computer Science.

"The College of Engineering is an important part of the mix on Centennial Campus," said Dennis Kekas, associate vice chancellor of the Centennial Campus Partnership Office. "Not only do the faculty, researchers and students interact on a regular basis with our corporate, governmental and non-profit partners, but the influx of students gives the campus a youthful vibrancy."

The new building was financed by the North Carolina state legislature and features a wind tunnel and 80 laboratories. It also stands next to the next educational facility to be constructed on Centennial - the 120,000-square foot James B. Hunt, Jr. library, a state-of-the-art building that will feature a remote-control book storage retrieval system.

Centennial Campus is a 1,314-acre research park and campus owned and operated by NC State University. Located just minutes from the university's main campus in Raleigh, North Carolina, the award-winning campus houses more than 60 corporate, government, and non-profit partners and three million square feet of constructed space. Centennial also holds residential space, an 18-hole championship golf course, fishing pier and lake, greenway trails and a middle school. The park was created in 1984. In addition to the College of Engineering, the campus also holds classes for the College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Textiles, and the College of Education.

NC State University is largest public university in North Carolina, with more than 31,000 students and 8,000 faculty and staff.

Website: http://www.centennial.ncsu.edu

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