Altura was selected because of our ability to ensure a smooth handover of the building from construction into operations, leveraging an enhanced warranty process that ensured the building performed as intended for all researchers.

The new Chen Neuroscience Research Building provides advanced tools and techniques aimed at extending Caltech’s long traditions in molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience. It offers shared lab spaces and centralized hubs where the campus-wide community of neuroscientists, biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, computer scientists, and social scientists come together to continue their groundbreaking work. During the construction phase and, specifically, the functional performance tests, the focus was to confirm the systems that were part of the commissioning scope, performed per the construction specifications. Full range testing for humidity and temperature-controlled spaces were also performed.

Altura used a Key Performance Indicator dashboard and Fault Detection and Diagnostics so that Caltech was able to utilize the warranty period to its full potential. Finding issues before the warranty period ended was valuable because the various research groups that moved in knew someone was monitoring their spaces, finding issues, and confirming they were resolved— greatly improving the educational environment.