Project Type
The Campus Center at Becton Dickinson is a 38,500-square-foot facility that bridges and blurs the boundaries between building/landscape, indoor/outdoor, roof/earth, figure/ground, and the two local business cultures of management/production.
Over 500 people can simultaneously enjoy a number of dining venues, multi-station serveries, kitchens, retail store, coffee bar and café, bank, dry cleaner, and support areas including a loading dock and mezzanine-level mechanical areas. There are exterior dining terraces, and areas within the building that can be partitioned into intimate dining or meeting areas.
The Great Lawn
Site design focused on sustainability and the sanctity of the open space between the two main buildings known as the “Great Lawn.” Rather than disrupting this area with another building, the new campus center was slipped beneath it to allow the lawn to become a roof over the entire structure. The reconstituted lawn as a means of site conservation reduces storm water run-off and minimizes below grade structures, piping and eliminates heat islands.
Sustainable Design
The thermal envelope and vegetative roof significantly reduce energy consumption, while the glass roof over a void cut between the structure’s two volumes optimizes thermal conductivity and light transmittance, while minimizing solar heat gain, using 80% glass frit. Heating and air conditioning is a combination of radiant cooling and heating. The displacement ventilation allows the high ceiling space to be stratified, reducing the heating and cooling requirements of the space.
Commune/Collaboration
The CEO imagined the new campus center as a virtual knot that would join two existing stand-alone office buildings, once separated by the Great Lawn, and unite the executive management team and technical staff. A cafeteria serves as social glue in realizing the objectives for unifying the distinct cultures, the sum of which are translated into a re-contextualized built form.
