The Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory (ASEL) at Auburn University is a 42,000 square foot state-of-the-art engineering testing facility. Opened in 2021, this LEED-certified facility provided a much-needed expansion for the structural testing equipment being operated by Auburn's engineering programs. The facility offers testing areas - including a 30-foot-tall strong wall, strong floor, and geotechnical test chamber - fabrication and workshop spaces, and office areas for research engineers, faculty, and graduate students.
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Big Graphics for Big Flows
One of the primary drivers of the sizing and siting of the building is the need for this facility to receive extra-long structural members for failure testing. The high-bay facility was required to receive oversized tractor trailer trucks pulling structural members that were up to 135' long, almost twice the length of a typical trailer. This requirement not only impacted the siting of the building, but also the elevation of the finished floor and its vertical relationship with the site topography. The landscape design team used the long, arabesque curves of truck turning radii to organize the design of the site. Large landscape super-graphics reveal overlapping circulation patterns in playful and celebratory way.
Industrial-Scaled Landscape
The primary testing facility is a high-bay area that spans 78' wide x 200' long and includes two 30-ton overhead cranes, each with a 35' clear height. Needless to say, this facility looms large. The landscape design needed to address the scale and robust use of this facility. The landscape intentionally operates both at the vast scale of the facility as well as at the intimate scale of the body. The bone yard, which is approximately 2/3 size of a football field, will display the giant fragments of broken and crushed post-tested structural members for students and researchers to explore. Simultaneously the shady grove of Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica) offers a quiet place of refuge to the graduate research assistant to take a quick coffee break away from the work.
Big-Ol'-Basins
Rainwater from the immense 42,000 square foot roof is first collected in a large harvesting cistern. Overflow water is then routed into four linked vegetated basins. These basins aren't focused solely on water quantity, as a conventional detention pond might be, but rather offers filtering and shading for improved water quality as well. Matching the scale of the industrial facility, these basins range between 140' and 200' long.
The big-ol'-basins are designed to not only collect water, but to also develop into active ecological patches over time. These pockets where plants and water meet are prime spaces for protection and habitat for insects, birds, and small mammals. Each basin has a different shrub mix: Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) in basin 01, Summersweet Clethra (Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird') in basin 02, a mixture of Winterberry cultivars (various Ilex verticillata) in basin 03, and Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera) in basin 04. The shrubs for each basin were selected to both offer wildlife value and accomplish spatial agendas. The Wax Myrtles in basin 04 provide a screen to the boneyard; the Clethra of basin 02 serve as a textured threshold at the building entry; and the Chokeberry of basin 01 serve as a backdrop for the shady grove. The big-ol'-basins are patches of protected wild, framed within the larger expanse of lawn.


The upcoming Stormwater and Erosion Control Issue of Landscape Architect and Specifier News saw many firms submit their projects for feature consideration. This project was not chosen for a Feature in the issue, but we at LandscapeArchitect.com thought the project deserved to be showcased online . . .