Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the Claremont McKenna College Robert Day Sciences Center serves as the home for the college’s newly formed Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences. The 135,000 sq. ft. building takes form through a series of parallel structural steel trusses, stacked and rotated 45 degrees at each level to create a dynamic interplay between educational, laboratory, social, and circulatory spaces. The trusses house flexible teaching and research labs along with faculty offices. The interstitial zones between the stacked trusses result in a central atrium & social hub extending the full height of the building, fostering integration and collaboration between previously siloed disciplines and promoting transparency and collaboration. 

The unitized curtain wall facade celebrates the internal structure and features board-formed glass fiber reinforced concrete cladding panels to represent the internal truss webs. Natural light is accessible all throughout the sciences center, most dramatically at the central atrium where a monumental structural skylight pours daylight into student social spaces. Exterior landscaped terraces resultant from the intersecting truss volumes create immediate connections to the cantilevered structure and wider campus.

Heintges provided building envelope and roofing & waterproofing consulting services during design and construction phases.