A new building at the Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha has become a versatile research, development, and training resource for students and industry. Designed by BNIM, the 65,000-square-foot Center for Advanced and Emerging Technology (CAET) includes a virtual-reality lab, 3-D printing, laser cutters, plasma-cutting technology, and a high-bay space for such endeavors as prototyping new equipment.
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Central to an MCC 2010 master plan, which prioritized consolidating campus facilities, improving education delivery, and creating a job pipeline, the CAET also provides cutting-edge facilities to train professional teams. The contemporary steel structure, clad with white precast-concrete panels on the east and west, opens onto a two-story high-bay volume called Innovation Central with glazed garage doors. A main corridor on the north, the primary circulation spine, is the social hub and connects Innovation Central to the rest of the program: training rooms, a data center, multifunction spaces, and offices. Glass curtain walls provide views and daylight that reaches into interior training rooms, while a perforated metal screen on the building’s south elevation manages solar gain. The architects redeveloped an existing urban site for the project, where they improved stormwater management for the area. They also created pedestrian and public transportation connections to the neighborhood.
Since CAET opened in 2017, corporate training at MCC is up more than 300 percent, generating income for the school and employment opportunities for students. The building now serves as a national training center for EPI-USA, a California-based data-center-training organization. Additionally, in the first year of a new Prototype Design degree, six of 17 enrolled students received job offers after completing only half of a two-year program. Designed to be adaptable, the LEED Gold building will allow the school to grow and adapt to suit the spatial and technological needs of future students and business partners.
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