11/16/2012 9:15:48 AM

Times Union: ZEN plans move ahead

Times Union

ALBANY — The construction season never ends at Albany NanoTech.

Next week, the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering will release bid documents to developers, architects and construction companies for the school's latest undertaking — a 200,000-square-foot facility dedicated to clean energy technology.

The NanoCollege has been planning the new facility — known as the ZEN building for "zero-energy nano" — for years now. It will be just east of the school's $365 million NanoFab X building that is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

So-called requests-for-proposals will be available next Tuesday for qualified businesses that sign confidentiality agreements. Responses to the RFP, in which architectural firms and developers outline their ideas and specifications for the building, are due back to the NanoCollege on Jan. 4.

NanoCollege spokesman Steve Janack confirmed that the new building would be the ZEN building, although he said additional details are not available, except those previously revealed by the school.

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