CDE, in association with Florida Architects, Inc., completed the design of a 65,000 square foot educational facility for Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, FL in 2009. Construction for the Brown Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship building began in 2010 and was completed in time for the 2012 academic year. With a construction cost of $14 million, the Brown Center is a facility with a learning focus on Alternative Energy and Sustainability. It consists of a two-story wing with technical facilities and laboratories along with a three-story administration area with offices and conference rooms.
This facility serves as a central hub for all elements of academic, technical, and entrepreneurial learning associated with green industry, including emerging fields such as Nanotechnology and Photonics. Extensive open air classrooms, technical laboratories, and high-tech multimedia classrooms allow simple transitions between academic learning and hands-on training for students. Green building materials, as well as energy saving solutions such as site orientation, use of thin film photovoltaic roof panels, LED lighting, wind turbines, a solar panel field, and environmentally friendly landscaping has earned LEED® Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.