Carnegie Mellon’s newest Oakland project alredy is a record‑setter.
The Richard King Mellon Hall of Sciences is a $252 million development, described by the university as the most expensive building project in its history, launched with a $75 million lead grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
The seven‑story, roughly 338,900‑square‑foot complex is rising at the corner of Forbes Avenue and South Craig Street, next to the Carnegie Museums and the South Craig business district, where it will serve as a new western gateway to CMU’s campus.
Designed by ZGF Architects with R3A Architecture as local partner, the building will bring together the Mellon College of Science, the School of Computer Science and the new Institute for Contemporary Art Pittsburgh in a single, mixed‑use hub. Inside, plans call for wet and dry research labs, teaching labs, collaboration areas, offices, instructional spaces and a 130‑space underground parking garage.
Renderings show a nearly 17,000‑square‑foot plaza along Forbes, restaurant space at street level, event and exhibition areas and direct connections to a future bus rapid transit station. The building is targeting LEED Gold certification, with a green roof, heat‑recovery systems and stormwater management that together are expected to cut energy use by more than half compared to typical laboratory buildings.
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Construction began in early 2024, and CMU said it expects the Hall of Sciences to open in fall 2027, completing one of the most consequential additions to Oakland’s “eds and meds” corridor in years.
This article by Gabby Sartori was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pittsburgh’s biggest new science hall set to reshape Oakland