Constructed by McCarthy Building Companies and designed by SmithGroup, the building will provide new and regionally unique research capabilities while also consolidating a number of interdisciplinary programs to one location. ARB will have a mix of space types, including high-bay payload assembly areas, a large-scale thermal vacuum chamber, varying types of laboratories, clean rooms, faculty offices, collaboration spaces, and conference rooms.
The ARB will focus specifically on research programs related to Pillar 2 of the university’s Strategic Plan, Grand Challenges. These grand challenges include such areas as space exploration, artificial intelligence, the environment, and disease prevention. Several university research programs such as imaging technology, advanced manufacturing, CubeSat design/fabrication/testing, and balloon payload integration will move into the ARB.
The ARB will provide the university’s Imaging Technology Laboratory with additional space and cross-campus collaboration opportunities. Technology created by the lab is commonly used for applications such as satellite imagery and in camera systems used on all university-run telescopes.
The ARB also will provide facilities for the design, fabrication, and testing of nanosatellites, which represent the next generation of spacecraft technology for space exploration and scientific investigation by reducing the cost of access to space and expanding the possible range of missions and insights. A large-scale thermal vacuum chamber, which simulates environmental conditions in space and is used to test balloon and satellite performance, will be located in the building and is the largest chamber of its kind at any university in the world.
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“As a design-build project, our team fully integrated with our design partners, the owner, and its end users to ensure ARB is not only highly functional, but we’ve also been able to overcome many of the supply chain issues that other projects are facing — the result is that ARB is on schedule and on budget even as modifications were made throughout construction,” said Mike Lee, McCarthy’s ARB Project Director. “Additionally, design-build delivery provided the visibility and flexibility necessary to accommodate and install the massive, irreplaceable, thermal TV chamber and support the university’s research and educational objectives.”
ARB is being designed and constructed by the McCarthy | SmithGroup design-build team. Both McCarthy Building Companies and SmithGroup are national firms with centers of excellence in Arizona. Construction of the building is designed to meet LEED Silver certification. As part of the project, the Highland Corridor will be improved and realigned to provide safer pedestrian and bicycle crossings at Helen Street.
