Architect Jim Collins talks about the URI campus quad which are comprised of different buildings. CBLS represents the first phase of the North District at URI, a new science and technology hub which transforms a series of irregular campus spaces into two, well-defined campus quadrangles bordered by a new pedestrian promenade. The highly cost-effective, LEED Gold building accommodates 30 faculty members and their research groups, in addition to teaching labs, classrooms, a 300-seat auditorium, a genomics lab and a GSL-3 lab for life sciences education. The relationship that these buildings have to the quad and to each other holds them together as an academic ensemble of buildings.