Barbara and Jack Davis Hall

Barbara and Jack Davis Hall
File:UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.jpg
General information
Type	Educational, Research Center
Location	North Campus, Amherst, New York
Current tenants	UB Engineering Department of Computer Science and Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR) Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors(CUBS)
Groundbreaking	May 2009
Completed	Late 2011
Opened	May 10, 2012
Cost	$75m (2010 dollars)
Client	State University of New York
Owner	University at Buffalo
Technical details
Floor count	Multi-Story
Floor area	130,000 sq ft (12,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Robert Goodwin
Architecture firm	Perkins and Will
Main contractor	Turner Construction
Awards and prizes	LEED Gold Certificate

Officially opened in May 10 2012, as a part of University at Buffalo's 2020 Strategic Plan, construction of Barbara and Jack Davis Hall, known as Davis Hall, started in 2009 with ground-breaking and finished in late 2011 with a construction cost of $75m including nearly $49.6m from New York State funding and the rest from corporate and individual endowments. Besides UB Engineering, Davis Hall is the new host to both Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments featuring several new laboratories and research centers.

The building features numerous state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories to improve quality of research and reach university's projected goals in extension of faculties and scope of cutting-edge research in UB Engineering along with transforming UB into a leading public research university in a national-wide perspective .

The building is constructed by Turner Construction and its exterior design is a reminiscent to printed circuit board representing interaction among faculties and students and is designed by Perkins and Will firm. The environmental-friendly building is constructed in accordance with LEED's Gold certificate standards.

Naming

The building is named after Barbara and Jack Davis Hall since the couple made the largest endowment($5m) among individuals to fund the project. The couple made their first donation of $1.5m to fund the project in 2008. Jack, a UB Engineering graduate in 1955 , and his wife donated an additional $3.5m to the project making themselves the people who have made the largest endowment in university's history with $5m endowment.

Tenants

Departments

The building is the new home to Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments. However, the building supports five other departments such as Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Notable features

Davis Hall is an economic-friendly building opening a new gate toward cutting-edge research by its new, state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories.

Facilities and research centers

• 5,000 sq ft (460 m²) of Cleanroom space
• Two 3D Electrical Engineering Labs
• A smart room
• A surgery lab
• A multimedia lab
• A security lab
• Two visualization labs
• Eleven flexible, multi-purpose labs
• Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR)<ref name="Davis Hall">
• Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS)<ref name="Davis Hall">

LEED's gold certificate

In April 4, 2012 it was announced that the building has been certified "Gold" by LEED. The building exceeds the state's energy efficiency code by 34 percent. Some of its features, making the building green, are as follow:

• An outdoor plaza that includes water-efficient landscaping and methods to capture stormwater
• A small green roof
• Waterless urinals
• Bicycle racks
• Constructed with recycled building materials
• Energy-efficient heating, cooling and ventilation systems