UC Merced Classroom and Office Building

The new Classroom and Office Building at University of California Merced was the first of three initial buildings completed on the campus, besides the central utility plant.

The new facility holds lecture halls, classrooms, computer labs, multimedia and studio art spaces, faculty and graduate student offices, incubator space and a 360-seat auditorium. The new building also offers distance learning services, which require technologically advanced features and draws on a suit of energy saving technologies.

Gas fired boilers located in the central plant will deliver heating water and chilled water to the academic buildings, and chilled water to student residences and other support buildings. A centralized chilled water generator allows for thermal energy storage to be incorporated with relative ease. The central plant is outfitted with a 30,000 ton/hour stratified chilled water thermal energy storage tank. Cooling towers are located on the roof of the plant building.