UNCC trustees get preview of design for EPIC Building

1.30.2009

UNC Charlotte’s Board of Trustees got a preview recently of the architectural design for the new Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC), which will be located on the Charlotte Research Institute’s campus.
The presentation on Jan. 22 by David A. Creech, of Narmour Wright Creech Architects, featured several renderings of the building, which will house the departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Electrical Engineering in a collaborative teaching and research facility.
At 200,000 square feet, the EPIC building will provide classroom, office and laboratory space to accommodate growth in energy infrastructure research and collaboration with industry partners, including Duke Energy, and construction partners like AREVA, Parsons, and Shaw Group.
UNC Charlotte proposed to create EPIC in response to a projected 30 percent increase in the demand for energy in the U.S. by 2030. Industry leaders are looking toward UNC Charlotte to help address a critical shortage in the intellectual capital necessary to modernize current energy production operations and facilitate the development of alternative energy sources.
Groundbreaking on the building is scheduled for late summer of 2009 and the target date for completion is July 2011. Funding for the project was temporarily placed on hold earlier this fall. However, the Council of State determined earlier this month to allocate the remaining $57 million in construction funds so the project could move forward.
At the Jan. 22 board meeting, Creech told the trustees the building would be LEEDS certified, at the Silver level.
“As an energy center, we want to lead by example,” Creech said. The three-story structure will make ample use of natural light along with other energy-saving features, he said.

- This information was provided by the UNC Charlotte public-information office. A public research university, UNC Charlotte is the fourth largest campus among the 17 institutions of the University of North Carolina system. It is the largest institution of higher education in the Charlotte region. The university offers 18 doctoral programs, 62 master’s degree programs and 90 programs leading to bachelor’s degrees. Fall 2008 enrollment exceeds 23,300 students, including almost 5,200 graduate students.


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