What to See at Skirkanich Hall

Four instructional laboratories provide discovery-based learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. These spaces and the Bioengineering departmental suite on the third floor are arranged around a sculptural, redundant flight of stairs that provides an easy connection to the research floors. The research laboratories support the most advanced experimental and theoretical work in the application of engineering to biology and health. A visually and acoustically perfect auditorium occupies the lowest level.

Bioengineering research and education within Skirkanich Hall span a range of scales, approaches, and challenges: from molecules to cells, tissues, and organs; from mathematical modeling to the manipulation of molecules and cells; and from the analysis of biological systems to the synthesis of medical technologies. This research and education is truly cross-cutting, exploiting and developing techniques in mechanics, computation, chemistry, optics, fabrication, molecular biology, and other technologies.

The management of volume within Skirkanich Hall is first noticed in its unusual massing and its sculpted façades. The space is further understood by climbing the ever-surprising main stairwell, staring into the wedge-shaped atrium or inspecting the many views hidden in the central courtyard. Extraordinarily textured surfaces create a diverse and invitingly tactile experience.

The façades consist of brick, cantilevered shingled-glass panes and zinc paneling. Highly distressed, hand-laid manganese and ceramic glazed bricks simulate a natural material. Their individual colors follow a distribution centered along a mossy green but with an overall spectrum that ranges from acid yellow to black. The perceived color of the bricks changes dramatically with light conditions, further enhancing the organic feel of their surfaces.

Canadian black granite lines the entrance, walkway and the public spaces in the lower floors. The height of the panels lends a majestic feel to the outer plaza. The faceted texture of the surfaces has been achieved by a flame treatment of the stone to reveal the glimmer of mica and the opaqueness of feldspar. Steel signage is embedded into water-jet-carved cavities within the granite. Polished granite benches of generous thickness are placed throughout the lower levels and the courtyard.

The structural concrete monolith emerging from the ground can be seen only from inside the building. All vertical concrete surfaces have been bush-hammered inch by inch to reveal the material’s blue aggregate and give the concrete the feel of a hand-carved stone. Conversely, all concrete floors have been ground to a terrazzo texture, within which the polished blue aggregates simulate gems. Traditional ceiling construction gives way to delicately sandblasted concrete ceilings at the perimeters of the building, flooding the spaces with light.

Hand-glazed yellow and blue tiles and cherry wood battens with bright background fabric are the color accents of an internal palette that is otherwise mostly black and white. The position of the dimples in the yellow tiles displayed in the lobby and floor landings provide another degree of freedom in the design of the color panels. The night view of the lobby is strongly dominated by the glow of the tiles, each of them a one-of-a-kind. Blue tile panels in the main stairwell echo the blue tones of the aggregate embedded in the stone-like concrete walls and floors.