Russ Berger Design Group has completed the design of television and radio studios at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas as part of a new building for the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. The facility will incorporate the latest in broadcast technologies and the latest in sustainable design technologies; it is expected to achieve certification in the Green Building Council’ s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.
The building, slated to be completed in the summer of 2008, comprises more than 120,000 square feet and will house the seven departments that make up the college. RBDG helped create the 28,000-square-foot space that will be the new home for UNLV-TV and KUNV radio, which serve the Las Vegas community and are also used for student instruction. The new facility will include two television studios; video and audio control rooms; radio control rooms; performance and interview studios; post-production suites; edit booths; radio and TV newsrooms; and a variety of equipment rooms, media libraries and related support spaces.
A 200-seat auditorium will be available for television production and as a more traditional lecture and performance venue. Several labs are specially designed to create instructional environments for writing, nonlinear editing and convergent media.
The university and the donors who are helping to fund the building’ s construction made sustainable design a top priority. To be eligible for LEED certification, a building’ s design, construction and operation must meet certain prerequisites and performance benchmarks in five areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. One of the building’ s environmentally friendly features is an outdoor plaza above the ground-level studios, which will be covered by a canopy of solar-panel arrays to generate energy for the structure.
“Creating a space that meets the technical demands of a broadcast studio but also incorporates the best in ‘green’ design is always a challenge, but we’ve developed innovative solutions to satisfy both goals,” says Russ Berger, president of RBDG. “It’s satisfying to see an end result that is both technically outstanding and environmentally responsible. It’ s a space that will inspire and nurture tomorrow’s broadcasters while helping to preserve resources for the future.”
This will be the second LEED-certified studio designed by RBDG. The firm recently completed work on Circle R Media, the first LEED Silver–certified video, film and audio production facility, which is located on the Radio Shack campus in Fort Worth, Texas.
For more information, visit www.rbdg.com and http://urbanaffairs.unlv.edu.
