Purdue University Chaney-Hale Hall of Science

Sited in the heart of Purdue University’s campus, the Chaney-Hale Hall of Science houses 33 teaching labs for biology, general chemistry, biochemistry, organic chemistry, and chemical engineering.

Awash in daylight and loaded with comfortable workspace, Chaney-Hale Hall has, for many, become the “home away from home.” The building welcomes visitors with glassy, easy to access entries, and filters them through generous corridors studded with comfortable seating. “Living rooms” are spread along the glass-fronted east and west sides of the building, providing views out to the leafy campus and into the teaching labs. Tall, sloped ceilings, and shaded glass offer soft daylight to the whole building– including the basement. The labs, previously dark and gloomy, are bright and cheerful, creating positive associates between science and daily life.

Full transparency from the corridors to the labs puts science on display and allows students, faculty, and researchers to observe and participate in the scientific process without physically entering the lab or disrupting the research activity. An expanded lobby and corridors, as well as and a café on the ground floor, provide space for student collaboration. The building’s basement is home to extensive equipment and chemical storage, with dumbwaiter access to upper-level stores.

The labs are planned in a flexible framework and supported by ample adjacent collaborative workspace for project teams, lab technician offices and conference rooms, and hoteling offices for faculty. The building offers lab-of-the-future learning space for science and engineering courses, providing a flexible, highly visible, and technology-rich environment that encourages new modes of peer-to-peer engagement. As identified in our previously completed Master Plan, the project allows the College of Science to offload teaching and support labs from several other buildings, freeing up much-needed space to be repurposed for new research labs.

Through smart planning and efficient mechanical systems such as chilled beams, the project has achieved an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 161 kBtu/sf. This is a remarkable achievement for a building with 33 labs, 84 fume hoods, and 144 scavenger arms. Coupled with smart water management strategies, high indoor air quality, daylighting, native plantings, and other factors, the building was recently awarded a LEED Silver rating with 56 points.