A new 196,000-square-foot, $105 million health sciences biomedical research facility is under way at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), said university officials last week. The five-story building, headed in design by campus architect Boone Hellmann and construction by McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., is slated for an August 2013 completion. “We’re expecting this to be the highest-performing and most sustainably-designed research lab on the UCSD campus and quite possibly in the country,” said Hellmann. “McCarthy and ZGF have been working closely with us to devise a customized project delivery system to help ensure its success.” The research building will fit within the modern design context of the academic mall on the School of Medicine campus, with its exterior incorporating a combination of concrete, curtain wall, metal panels and terra cotta cladding. The facility will encompass wet labs, open lab space, lab support and administrative support. Design features will include computer-controlled exterior solar shading systems on the east, west and south facades — the most extensive use of this type of shading by any building in the UC system. In response to San Diego County’s water shortage, the building’s design also dictates extensive reuse of water for landscape irrigation, as well as urinal and toilet flushing.