Charlotte Media Tour Energy "Capitol" Building

WSOC coverage of EPIC tour

Johan Enslin, director of EPIC, is interviewed by members of the media during a tour of the facility conducted Tuesday.

By Jared Moon

As Charlotte becomes the nation's new energy capital, then the EPIC building at UNC Charlotte may well be the capital's capitol.

Charlotte-area print and television outlets – Charlotte Business Journal, Charlotte Observer, News14Carolina, WSOC-TV and student media -  received an overview of EPIC presented by Enslin and Jennifer Evans, project manager for the facility.

Initial move-in of the building is under way. During the tour, participants were shown a number of EPIC’s highlights:

·          - The main atrium, which opens up to aesthetically pleasing rotunda.

·         - The Duke Energy Smart Grid Laboratory, which houses equipment designed to test and run a wide range of model validation and real-time simulations.

·         - The high bay area and control room.  The building’s crown jewel, it is one of the five largest high bays in the country and will serve as a site for large-scale structural design and testing

      - The environmental lab suite that will provide students the opportunity to conduct hands-on research

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       - The basement floor, which contains two of the building’s large lecture halls with a combined capacity to conduct classes for more than 500 students and space where the University’s Solar Decathlon house will be built.

      The LEED Gold certified building, EPIC contains a high-tech cooling system, a rain collection system and precise window locations and treatments that are among the energy-reducing technologies embodied within the $76 million facility.

      

      EPIC will open this fall and will house the civil and environmental engineering and electrical and computer engineering departments of the William States Lee College of Engineering.

      The Office of Public Relations in the Advancement Division partnered with Lee College of Engineering and EPIC officials to organize and conduct the media tour.