Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has created a biometric technology facility for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that features open, light-filled workspaces and views of the hilly terrain.
The FBI Biometric Technology Center was constructed within an existing FBI campus in Clarksburg, West Virginia, that houses the division of Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS). The new centre was created through a joint effort between the FBI and US Department of Defense.

Accommodating 1,300 employees, the facility was built to centralise the research, development and application of biometric identification technology used for purposes of national security and law enforcement.
Biometric technology measures and analyses human characteristics, such as DNA, palm prints, irises and voice patterns.
The building "allows the CJIS Division, which has one of the largest collections of biometric information in the world, and the US Department of the Army, which has developed military biometrics database systems, to advance the next generation of identification technologies," said SOM.
The firm has designed numerous government projects, including an emergency call centre in New York and a leadership centre at a military campus in Colorado.

Encompassing 375,000 square feet (34,839 square metres), the new research facility consists of a glazed cubic volume that sits atop a stone-clad podium. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide expansive views of the hilly, pa...