Project name: Wilkens Science and Engineering Center
Project overview: The Frank and Maureen Wilkens Science and Engineering Center, funded by the Commonwealth, modernizes science teaching and provides a home for the engineering department at Cape Cod Community College. The 39,000-square-foot facility emphasizes and supports STEM programs, bolstering the College’s role as a regional education hub, critical as the sole higher education institution on Cape Cod. High-quality STEM education is pivotal in engaging an underserved population. The building supports community-wide STEM education initiatives, including summer camps, public lectures and entrepreneurship opportunities.
Nestled elegantly into the hill, the new building features a carved wooden form that harmonizes with the Cape Cod vernacular. Its strategic placement and landscape intervention welcome all, replacing a previous “fortress” of buildings that turned away from the parking lots. Envisioned as the campus heart, it offers abundant informal study spaces through a well placed triple-pane curtainwall, enticing students from all disciplines.
The design prioritizes the building’s inherent materials, embracing minimal ornamentation to minimize embodied carbon and reduce costs. Despite budget constraints, it invests in critical building elements, defining the architectural character and advancing sustainability goals. As the final major campus investment for decades, this ambitious project realized its transformative potential.
Project location: West Barnstable, Massachusetts
Firm name: Payette
Architect of Record: Payette
Completion: 2022
Jury comments: This small, unassuming building achieves greatness in many unseen ways. With a very tight budget, the design team was able to achieve net zero, considering water, energy, and embodied carbon, all while shrinking the footprint and designing spaces so flexible that they can still meet programmatic needs of today and the future.
