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When is good not good enough for a building? When the project team convinces the project owner that it can be among the best of its kind.

Case in point: A renovation and expansion of Shiley Hall, the building that houses the University of Portland’s engineering program.

Armed with the largest private donation ever received from an alumnus, university officials set out to add 30,000 square feet to the existing 44,000-square-foot building. The initial goal was to include enough sustainable features to qualify the project for a silver rating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green-building program.

Once Interface Engineering and other project team members – a group that included Soderstrom Architects, KPFF Consulting Engineers, WHPacific and Turner Construction – began brainstorming ways to seamlessly integrate the new building with the one built in 1949, it became apparent that the building might qualify for a LEED platinum designation.

The project team created a design that turned the building into more than a series of classrooms. The entire structure serves as an interactive learning space that provides engineering students with an opportunity to observe the mechanical and electrical systems that helped push the building toward the highest level of green excellence on the LEED scale.

Lab classroom lighting, for example, taps into recessed fluorescent lighting with meso-optic technology, which provides even illumination while reducing glare. Other classrooms in the building showcase suspended fluorescent lights that can be adjusted to offer diffused light or dimmed lighting.

The most innovative – and educational – system in the building, however, may be a radiant heating and cooling system that features in-slab tubing. In addition to being a unique design, the system is represented by a series of sensors with digital readouts on a panel display on a learning wall. The panel helps students understand how the system operates, providing a lesson that takes learning beyond the traditional textbook.