The Lead
Designing high-performance sustainable labs on a budget
October 9, 2015 | by Lindsay Hock, Editor | Articles | Comments
Two of the biggest issues faced in the lab design industry are arguably budgets and funding. With a slow resurgence from the recent recession, funding from the NIH and NSF has decreased for lab construction, operation and research. And with this trend, many organizations look to renovations instead of new builds for their needs.
A drought of conservation
September 1, 2015 7:47 am | by Lindsay Hock, Editor | Articles | Comments
Water conservation is all but ignored in a majority of labs, even those certified as “green.”...
The value of the post-occupancy evaluation
August 19, 2015 10:00 am | by Jennifer Mango, IIDA, ASID, Associate, Senior Interior Designer, Tsoi/Kobus & Associates (TK&A) | Articles | Comments
Multiple considerations must be prioritized throughout the design process: client goals,...
Inspiring productive playgrounds
August 13, 2015 4:47 pm | by Lindsay Hock, Editor | Articles | Comments
Branding a lab is one way to make labs into “productive playgrounds”, or places that inspire and...
ABI backslides slightly
October 14, 2015 3:02 pm | by American Institute of Architects | News | CommentsThe Architecture Billings Index (ABI) slipped in August after showing mostly healthy business conditions so far this year. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to 12 month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending.
A sustainable cleanroom/lab complex
October 14, 2015 12:00 pm | by Lindsay Hock, Editor | Articles | CommentsWith any lab environment, lab designers are concerned about hazards and chemicals, and plan the safest lab they can for the given science conducted. The biggest job is to keep these hazards and chemicals away from the staff, which can be done in multiple ways. One way, and probably the most common, is fume hoods.
Planning for resiliency
October 13, 2015 10:00 am | by Lindsay Hock, Editor | Articles | CommentsOver the past 10 to 15 years, the lab design industry has seen buildings designed more around environmental issues. Lab designers/planners have risen to the call to provide more efficient buildings, while being better stewards of resources.
Solving for the unknown
October 12, 2015 4:00 pm | by Bryan Thorp, AIA, LEED AP and Adrian Walters, AIA, LEED AP, ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge | Articles | CommentsThe ideal scenario for a lab design team is predictability. Knowing precisely what the capital equipment requirements are and who the lab users will be, then developing a design, budget and schedule based on this information, is beneficial in reducing risk.
Deconstructing collaboration: Does architecture really matter?
October 12, 2015 2:00 pm | by Erik Lustgarten, AIA, Gensler | Articles | CommentsThere have been many famous collaborations that have led to breakthroughs and revolutions that have changed the course of history: The Manhattan Project brought us the atomic age; Crick, Wilkins and Watson cracked the code of life; and Larry Page and Sergey Brin brought us Google.
National labs accelerate collaboration
October 12, 2015 10:00 am | by Sara Eastman, RA, Saul Jabbawy and Ted Newell, AIA, EwingCole | Articles | CommentsWhen the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE)’s system of national labs was formed, the U.S. was deep in the Cold War. Competition with the Soviets permeated scientific research, most famously in the space program and chemical weaponry, and the country was paralyzed with fear secrets would be leaked.
Fume hoods in lab design
October 12, 2015 8:08 am | by Lindsay Hock, Editor | Articles | CommentsWith a majority of labs still focused on “wet” research, fume hoods are an important safety equipment staple. By definition, fume hoods are local ventilation devices designed to limit exposure to hazardous or toxic fumes in lab settings. And, for years, vendors have advanced the technology further and advertised these standard safety devices as energy-efficient devices.
Leveraging BIM to elevate design of modern lab spaces
October 9, 2015 4:45 pm | by Lina Stinnett, Associate AIA, Regional BIM Director, JE Dunn Construction | Articles | CommentsResearch environments are complex spaces that require a significant amount of lab planning to satisfy the researchers’ needs within that facility. The lab spaces not only need to provide the flexibility and intimacy researchers are seeking, but also accommodate highly specialized equipment specific to their kind of research.
Kent State Univ., College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability & Technology, Kent, Ohio
October 9, 2015 1:45 pm | by Laboratory Design Newsletter | News | CommentsKent State Univ.’s College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability & Technology Building includes 14,000 nsf of research and teaching lab and lab support space in a 55,200-gsf building for the school of engineering. It houses labs for electrical engineering, aeronautical engineering, applied engineering, construction management, environmental design and fuel cell research.
A passion for collaboration and the dissemination of knowledge
October 9, 2015 10:30 am | by Jon Erdmann, Architectural Nexus | Articles | CommentsHuntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), which is part of the Univ. of Utah Health Care system, will open its fourth building in mid-2017. Named after its focus on families’ and children’s cancers, it’s an expansion of the existing research building and will effectively double the current research space, adding 220,000 sf.
Marrying the old with the new
October 8, 2015 3:00 pm | by Brian Campa, Cooper Carry | Articles | CommentsLocated in metropolitan Atlanta, Emory Univ. is one of the world’s leading research universities and the fourth largest contributor in the nation to the discovery of new drugs and vaccines among public-sector research institutions.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Solar Energy Research Center (SERC), Berkeley, Calif.
October 8, 2015 11:45 am | by Laboratory Design Newsletter | News | CommentsHelios SERC scientists are developing solar-driven chemical converters that will create transportation fuels from water and carbon dioxide. Centered at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, this program includes experts from LBNL, Univ. of California Berkeley and partners from several other universities.
Striking a sound balance: Better acoustics for labs with offices
October 8, 2015 9:00 am | by James Perry, Chief Technical Officer, Cerami & Associates | Articles | CommentsToday, many R&D-driven workplaces are merging lab and office uses, and for various reasons. In some cases, the research organization wants to bring investors and potential partners closer to the action, so the conference room sits in or adjacent to workbenches.
Lab project cost management: Part 2 - Beyond the owner
October 7, 2015 5:30 pm | by Paul Wilhelms, Life Sciences Practice Leader, Gensler | Articles | CommentsThe term “designers” describes not only the architect and lab planner, but mechanical, lighting, interior, electrical and landscape designers—the team that will design and develop the contract drawings for pricing. Generally, the designers strive to please the owner, while making a significant design statement.
Support your vision: Planning customized science buildings
October 7, 2015 1:00 pm | by Matt Herbert and Marvin Kemp, Design Collective Inc. | Articles | CommentsThe 18th-century poet Robert Burns wrote the familiar line: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” Translation: Existing lab models often don’t work. Existing lab models developed for new college and university science and technology buildings often reflect Burns’ observation. That’s because there’s no single model for a modern science and technology building.
