Page 219 - Beyond Decommissioning

200 Beyond Decommissioning

The redevelopment team was also time-pressured: they had only 5 weeks to do it,
rather than a more typical 5 months, due to administrative deadlines. In addition to its
main task, the project also had to accommodate the historical building’s physical dis-
connection from WSU’s main campus and potential partner facilities, catalyze the
redevelopment of the area, and coordinate with adjacent development efforts such
as a new light rail line.
2
Now IBio offers 19,000 m to support research themes, including biomedical engi-
neering, cardiovascular, diabetes, and metabolism, behavioral science and computa-
tional biology.
“Two-thirds of the final building is restoration of a derelict 1927 Albert-Kahn-
designed auto dealership, 75% of which remains. The building was structurally
unsuited to lab planning, with a host of existing conditions in desperate need of cor-
rection or repair. Portions of the original building were not constructed properly in the
first place, requiring remediation of unreinforced concrete and inadequately supported
columns…By renovating a 90-year-old abandoned structure, IBio represents a second
century of usable life for the building. The new layout is designed to be as adaptable as
possible, featuring open space, movable casework, Quick-Connect fixtures, and
perimeter-run lab systems (water/air/vacuum) to facilitate access as needs change.
This approach primarily is intended to facilitate continually evolving habits among
multidisciplinary researchers, but it also should extend the building’s life even further
by accommodating future, unanticipated needs.”
It is interesting to note that this project envisages future redevelopments, which is
fully consistent with the circular economy sketched in Fig. 4.1. The design includes
flexible office and wet/dry lab space to permit multiple themes to collaborate on sim-
ilar projects, while allowing single groups to shrink or enlarge as needed. All of the
wet lab casework is moveable to allow for prompt reconfiguration without reconstruc-
tion. Placing the wet labs in the existing building meant that ceiling space was quite
valuable—an assortment of terminal heating and cooling equipment was used for
space conditioning, such as chilled beams in the dry lab and administrative areas.
The dry labs are an open work environment in a new addition to the building and
around the wet lab core on the north side of the building—this preserves daylight
and views for the researchers, and none of them occupies an outside wall (Lab
Design News, 2017).
Experience at the University of Connecticut’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building
proves that it is possible to completely repurpose an old laboratory building from the
1970s to a state-of-the-art biological research facility. The project was challenging.
What was formerly a privately owned toxicology-focused laboratory with large-
animal holding spaces would have to be converted into a core research facility for
quantitative cell biology, genomics, and human stem cell biology. In other words,
the project had to convert a building that was once 50% vivarium to a facility incor-
porating both bench and computational science.
Budget, however, was the most serious challenge. The price for the project was
2
around $2000/m , which is half an average budget for new construction. Incidentally,
as stated many times in this book, success of this project proves the inherent economic
advantages of conversion over a new build.