Indiana University’s Simon Hall creates an environment for current and future research in a setting that maintains one of the strongest architectural heritages in academia.
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Indiana University's multidisciplinary Simon Hall is located at the physical intersection of each science department in the middle of the Old Crescent. A green roof covers 26,000 ft2 of lab space located directly beneath the grassy, park-like quadrangle. (Image: Hedrich Blessing)
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Indiana Univ., Bloomington, is considered one of the most beautiful college campuses in the nation, with its abundance of flowering plants and trees and cool Indiana limestone buildings. A 20-acre area in the southwest corner of this campus, known as the Old Crescent, is now also home to
R&D Magazine’s 2008 Laboratory of the Year High Honors winner—Simon Hall.
Simon Hall is a multidisciplinary science building, located between the existing chemistry, biology, and physics buildings, in a style that blends perfectly with the surrounding buildings and the university’s landscape environment. Nearly half of the building’s 140,000 GSF of floor space was built below grade to complement, and not overwhelm, the scale of the existing buildings and maximize space for its vibration-sensitive instrumentation. To address today’s increasing need for flexible research space, all of Simon Hall’s labs were designed to be modular and easily reconfigured. And by incorporating an open lab environment, shared technical support areas, and centralized analytical facilities, the building is also well-suited to foster collaborative research.
“The building blends in with the surroundings making it seem like a master plan had been developed that always had this facility planned there,” says Jim Contratto, Director of Business Development at McCarthy Building Companies, St. Louis, Mo., and a judge in the 2008 Lab of the Year competition. “I also like the idea of meeting and intellectual sharing spaces being outside on terraces where the outdoors draws people.”
“I’m impressed that a university that has been traditionally very conservative on its lab buildings finally ‘got it’ and built a flexible building,” says Richard Rietz, an independent laboratory design consultant and another judge in the 2008 Lab of the Year competition. “That they put Simon Hall in the correct location to foster interdisciplinary science is also remarkable given that so many like buildings have been pushed to edges of or off the basic science portion of college campuses. I also like the fact that they preserved the open space by putting the core labs underground and also avoided protruding into the nearby on-campus woods.”
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A network of campus spaces was created around Simon Hall, linked by a pedestrian circulation system. Pathways connect building entries to existing corridors to preserve the collegial feel of the green spaces.
(Image: Flad Architects)
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Preserving and enhancing the landscapeIn order to provide the amount of space required by researchers in Simon Hall and respect the tradition of the campus, several levels of the facility are located underground. An expansive green roof covers 26,000 ft2 of laboratory space, located directly beneath the grassy, park-like quadrangle. After construction, the character of the landscape was extended into the quad, contouring the land and rebuilding the hills that had been leveled off in the 1940s. A selection of flowers and plants that thrive in shallow soil dot the area, which is also equipped with special waterproofing, drainage, and irrigation systems.
To enhance the experience of the scientists and researchers who work in Simon Hall, the ground plane was manipulated to work with the architecture for maximum daylighting. This effort provides access to natural light and exterior views for virtually all offices, labs, and common areas within the building, even those located below grade.
A network of campus spaces was also created, linked by a pedestrian circulation system. New pathways to connect building entries to existing corridors were added to preserve the collegial feel of the green spaces.
Sharing an architectural design
Taking visual cues from the adjoining Myers Hall, a 1930s art moderne building that was originally the medical school, Simon Hall incorporates many of that building’s features and design elements. Simon Hall echoes Myers in its isolated symmetry and works in unison to complete it. By creating tension between the buildings, the relationship between them is reinforced. Aesthetically, Simon Hall fits with the distinctive limestone buildings and collegiate gothic architecture on the Old Crescent site.
Simon Hall also was designed to achieve a high level of modern sustainability and energy efficiency which was aided by a rigorous life cycle cost analysis throughout the design and construction phases. The building features two types of heat recovery, including a high-efficiency enthalpy wheel with exhaust air streams. Simon Hall also has a chilled-water cascade system that optimizes the efficiency of the central utility plant. It also has a variable air volume air circulation system, occupancy sensors in the offices and conference rooms, and increased water conservation through high-efficiency fixtures.
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Simon Hall's design fits into the distinctive Indiana limestone and collegiate gothic architecture of the Indiana Univ. site.
(Image: Hedrich Blessing).
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Grouping of the labsBy virtue of Simon Hall’s location on the quad, it is physically central to traditional science departments on the Indiana Univ. campus. A series of tunnels connects Simon Hall to three other science buildings providing quick, easy access between them and eliminating the need for a loading dock that directly services Simon Hall.
The building provides scientists with low- and high-fume hood intensive and instrumentation lab spaces. A row of generic labs and office space for research assistants and post-docs occupies the north side of the building. In the center of the building, lab support spaces and offices occupy each side of a glass-lined corridor. The south side of the building contains more chemical intensive lab stations with correlating fume hoods. Every floor has a mixture of lab configurations, each flexible and adaptable for specific customization to accommodate a variety of uses and promote collaboration between disciplines.
“The lab layout is user friendly with lots of light and glass,” says McCarthy’s Contratto. “Simon Hall is a well-thought out design where faculty should feel very comfortable. It also reveals that not all lab designs require a Buck Rogers design. A lab can be laid out for a client that allows teaching and research in a comfortable environment.”
“I like the core laboratories that can be reconfigured to different core labs in the future,” says Rietz. “The wood furniture that comes apart piecemeal to allow different lab configurations is clever. Truly reconfigurable university labs are an idea that has been long in the evolving stage. Finally, we’re seeing some owners step up to the plate and actually build these buildings. This lab breaks with tradition in several significant ways: It’s not a departmental building; it can be reconfigured for different kinds of investigators; and it’s placed where it needs to be for science, not where the growth is occurring on the other side of the campus.”
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Research lab utilities are available at standardized locations. To maximize flexibility, labs were designed at a consistent size with a consistent layout, allowing them to be reassigned easily and quickly.
(Image: Hedrich Blessing)
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Lab design with flairOn the lower level of Simon Hall, the inclusion of a clean room for nanofabrication, a cryo-electron microscope, and state-of-the-art equipment for looking at protein structures will allow scientists on the Indiana Univ. campus to undertake groundbreaking research.
Transparency is also important in Simon Hall’s lab design. In today’s research environment, the multidisciplinary research teams require open and highly visible environments to achieve high rates of return. Open stairways in Simon Hall enhance the visibility and connectivity within the multistory building, while views into daily research activities stimulate impromptu conversations. Transparency within Simon Hall is achieved through extensive use of interior glass walls that also helps to showcase the science in the building and provide an avenue of outreach to industry.
The overall lab design was made with several concepts in mind:
Interactivity—Each large laboratory block within Simon Hall consists of three to six modules and is connected by an open ghost corridor to an adjacent lab block and faculty office. Offices are arranged in clusters of three to five faculty and an administrator. The office suites are located on each floor and have direct access to the corridor and labs, providing connections between faculty and research assistants.
Modularity—To maximize flexibility, labs and lab support areas were designed at a consistent size with a consistent layout. This modularity allows space to be reassigned easily and quickly.
Modular utilities—The same utilities are available at standardized lab locations, including reverse osmosis water, lab hot and cold water, natural gas, compressed air, cylinder gas, vacuum, and domestic water. As a result, to maximize cost and efficiency of building systems, generic labs with higher- or lower-hood intensities were designed. These labs are supported by the central system’s diversity to be converted at a later date.
Adaptability—Uniform support zones were created within each lab. These are adaptable for a variety of uses, including chemical/media prep, tissue culture, dark rooms, equipment rooms, constant temperature rooms, or cold rooms. These zones are planned to be directly adjacent to the lab and accessible to neighboring researchers to promote shared use and collaboration.
Flexibility – Instrumentation labs were developed around a ‘dance floor’ concept, allowing them to be quickly renovated. The fixed casework, hoods, and sinks are located around the perimeter of the lab, with utilities provided via overhead service carriers. The peninsulas use mobile instrumentation carts, mobile tables, or equipment carts. Where provided, fixed casework is free of utility services, simplifying quick reconfigurations that are necessitated by changes in equipment and/or research objectives.
Special areas
In addition to the flexible lab spaces, Simon Hall also provides for specialized core facilities. By housing these instruments and centers within one central multidisciplinary hub, the university has maximized its investment, allowing multiple researchers access to state-of-the-art technologies. These include:
•A high-field NMR facility containing 800- and 600-MHz NMRs supported by cryo-probes.
•Biosafety level 3 facility
•An ISO 6 (formerly class 1,000) clean room
•A high resolution cryo-transmission electron microscope
•An x-ray crystallography suite
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Simon Hall's exterior provides new opportunities for interaction with balconies incorporated to provide a small place to rest, reflect, and visually reconnect with the university community.
(Image: Flad Architects)
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Each of these platforms comes with its own unique demands for supporting building systems.
Lab safety features are organized in a clear and uniform method within Simon Hall. This provides an environment of good laboratory practices for investigators. At each lab entrance, there are built-in standardized safety stations including first aid kits, fire extinguishers, shower and eye-wash stations, fire blankets, contact lists, and phones. Glazing around the perimeter of the labs and entries provides an increased ability to monitor the research activities from research assistant offices and public spaces.
“On the outside, Simon Hall is a beautifully traditional building that is right at home on the Old Crescent site, but inside we can truly see the future of the life sciences,” says Sidney Taurel, Chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly and Co., Indianapolis.
“The design team is to be complimented on creating a campus green over the core labs, preserving the woods and using limestone to make the building look like it’s been there as long as its neighbors,” says Rietz. “So often, we see architectural ‘statement’ structures that glare out from campus settings. Preserving the atmosphere of this beautiful portion of a beautiful campus is wonderful.”
Published in R & D magazine: Vol. 50, No. 3, June, 2008, p.26-32