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Pre-design Investigation and Flexible Programming Contribute to a State-of- the-science Lab Space

July 15th, 2013 by Robert Skolozdra


By Robert Skolozdra, AIA, LEED AP

Research science is one of the most demanding usages of a given built space. The requirements, whether general or highly specialized, typically reach the outer limits of building safety and energy codes while the required infrastructure to support the various types of equipment set a premium on construction costs and demand for space. Moreover, design has to address the massive operational costs; the Whole Building Design Guide warns a typical laboratory consumes five times the energy and water per square foot of a typical office building. The upshot of these demands? Owner-stakeholders press designers to deliver facilities that maximize the usage and earnings potential of each square foot.c

In 2007, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., acquired the former Bayer Pharmaceutical complex in Orange, Conn., adding 460,000 square feet to Yale Medical School’s expanding West Campus Integrated Science & Technology Center (W-ISTC). Administrators hoped to create a research hub for leading scientists and quickly realized that although the buildings had always been used for research, there were deficiencies in their design that placed severe restrictions on the types of equipment and scientific study the school could accommodate, not to mention near-zero flexibility for changing modes of research. Furthermore, the drab and poorly lit interiors—typical of conventional catchall laboratory design—would hardly suit the prestige project envisioned by Yale.

Read full article here on Retrofit Magazine.

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