October 11, 2007
Hall research building dedication Oct. 17
The public is invited to an open house in honor of the dedication of the Benjamin D. Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building, from 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17. The building is located just west of the Publications Services Building on NE Northlake Place.
A map is available at http://www.washington.edu/home/maps/northwest.html.
The Hall building is the first on the UW campuses, and only the 11th in the country, to be certified as LEED-CS (Core and Shell) Pilot Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Benjamin Hall has been a faculty member at the UW since 1963. His groundbreaking work in genetics led to the development of a method for producing genetically engineered proteins in yeast. This ability to use yeast as biochemical “factories” paved the way for the creation of a vaccine against the hepatitis B virus, a major cause of lethal diseases including liver cancer.
Hall’s invention has been licensed to many companies and institutions and has resulted in the delivery worldwide of at least one billion doses of the hepatitis B vaccine. These licenses have returned more than $130 million to the UW.
“Ben Hall has been an inspiration to students and colleagues,” said Provost Phyllis Wise. “In addition, his advances in research provided a major boost to the UW’s technology transfer efforts, which have benefited the public in many ways. The income from his inventions continues to support UW graduate students and faculty research through the Royalty Research Fund.”
Hall, now professor of genome sciences and biology, continues to be an active researcher, studying the genetics and evolution of rhododendrons.
The Hall Building was designed to be flexible and cost effective in meeting the need for facilities that would serve multi-disciplinary research initiatives. The energy savings alone on this building are predicted to be $220,000 the first year as compared with standard buildings of this size and use. Some of the energy-efficient, environment-friendly features include:
- During construction, 93 percent of construction waste was diverted from the landfill.
- About 23 percent of the total construction cost was spent on recycled materials.
- Underground parking eliminates the “heat island” effect cause by surface parking. The parking area gives preference to carpools.
- To encourage bicycle commuting, the building has secure bicycle storage and shower/changing facilities.
- The selection of low-water-use and native plants will reduce landscape watering by 43 percent.
- Energy-efficient plumbing will reduce interior water use by 38 percent.
- Refrigeration and air-conditioning systems are free of ozone-depleting chemicals.
- Paints, coating and carpet meet or exceed the highest industry standards for indoor air quality.
- Heat-energy recovery of general exhaust air, energy-efficient lighting systems and light controls, and variable-frequency drives and fans should result in a 30 percent reduction in energy costs.
