Careful integration of architectural and engineering elements demonstrates that
the
whole of a design can be greater than the sum of its parts.
|
The Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at
USC. Photo: Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing
|
For some research facilities, a single architectural or engineering feature is a mark of
success in laboratory design. The true design test is to incorporate multiple innovative features
that are energy efficient, architecturally pleasing, and facilitate scientific goals.
The Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell
Research at the University of Southern California (USC) met this
challenge and was recognized with High Honors in R&D Magazine’s 2011 Laboratory of the
Year (LOY) competition.
The LOY judges were impressed with how engineering systems were incorporated into the
architecture to produce an overall effective building. The five-story, 91,485 square foot
structure, located on the university’s health sciences campus, is connected to the adjacent
Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute via bridges on each floor and a basement tunnel.
The buildings also share support services including steam, soft water, liquid nitrogen, and carbon
dioxide.
The structural connections grew from the facility's goal of creating an environment that
fosters collaboration, discoveries, and expansion. The building is home to stem cell research and
regenerative medicine laboratories, housing 15 faculty members and more than 100 staff and
students. The researchers collaborate with colleagues at other organizations to translate basic
discoveries into new treatments for cancer, neurosciences, cardiovascular disease, obesity,
diabetes, metabolic diseases, and immunology/infectious diseases.
The building is set on a slope from the south to north elevation. To bring as much natural
light into the laboratories as possible, the site architect and interior designer, ZGF
Architects LLP, Los Angeles, placed the mechanical systems on the semi-subterranean
ground floor. The first floor is dedicated to public functions and includes a lobby and a large
seminar room. The upper floors house laboratories and offices.
Twice the light
A key feature of the interior—the lighting—starts on the exterior. The east and west sides of the
building have glass façades running the full length to maximize natural lighting in the labs and
offices. The west façade features Low-E glass with a frit pattern to reduce heat gain. Angled
glass fins reduce glare from the afternoon sun without blocking exterior views.
The east façade features a unique, ventilated double-glass wall that acts as a buffer to
moderate temperatures to the interior, while allowing daylight to pass through. In cooler
temperatures, the wall acts as an insulating barrier, retaining air inside the cavity. Alternating
patterns of transparent and translucent glass create oblique exterior views, while maintaining an
air of privacy in the labs. The outside glass curtain, supported by steel cables and cable mesh,
meets California's stringent seismic requirements.
|
The flexible laboratories allow research group sizes to expand into adjacent
neighborhoods. Chilled beams, located about the benches, reduce heat gains from instruments and
equipment on the benchtops. Photo: Eric Staudenmaier
|
"This is the first double exterior wall I have seen that actually seems to work. It provides a
full wall of natural light for the users, but protects the lab benches and instrumentation from
direct sunlight," says Richard R. Rietz, independent lab design planner and 2011 LOY judge.
Transparency continues inside the laboratories. There are no obstructions across the building
or between the laboratory bench zone and desk/dry zone. The open labs, called neighborhoods, are
flanked by support spaces for fume hoods and tissue/cell culture rooms. Circulation paths direct
traffic along the exterior walls.
The second floor is occupied by core laboratories and the Stem Cell Collaborative and Training
Core, part of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). These
facilities, which include lab benches, fume hoods, an environmental room, and a sterilizer
facility, are used to teach and disseminate knowledge about stem cell research to the USC
community and other research organizations. The third, fourth, and fifth floors, used by USC’s
principal investigators, have similar layouts and feature meeting areas, kitchens, and balconies
for informal meetings and interaction between researchers.
The designers also built flexibility into the labs. As research needs change, wet benches and
dry benches/desks can be reconfigured and intermingled. Benches, desks, and environmental rooms
can be moved; only sinks, fume hoods, and sterilizers are fixed in place. Overhead service
carriers are movable, and the main service distribution lines run over aisles and hallways.
Cool solution
One of the most impressive features of the Broad facility identified by the judges was not only
behind the scenes, it was overhead: one-way throw chilled beams are located over laboratory
workbenches where heat gain occurs.
Chilled beams have been used in Europe for many years, but this was the first large-scale
installation in a California laboratory. Chilled beams can provide a solution to equipment-driven
cooling loads without paying the energy penalty of conditioning and moving additional outside
air.
Using chilled water rather than chilled air to remove thermal loads reduces ductwork
requirements, air handling unit sizes, fan energy, and floor-to-floor heights. The designers
estimate that annual energy consumption will be reduced 10 to 15%, and that by using the chilled
beams, approximately 35% less ductwork was required to maintain appropriate comfort levels in the
labs.
To supplement the natural light, linear luminaires are suspended between the benches to provide
artificial light. The light is reflected off the ceiling to provide a uniform, shadow-less work
area. Photocells monitor daylight from the windows and luminaries and reduce the electric lighting
levels when adequate daylight is available. Lab workers turn on lights when they enter the space.
Pre-programmed daytime and nighttime settings further reduce energy use. LED task lights are
connected to a low voltage lighting control system and shut off automatically.
"This building is a nice example of integrating architecture with the needs of the building.
It's a working building, and it should be a very productive building," says Dave Withee, manager,
sales and marketing, Diversified Woodcrafts, Suring, Wis., a 2011 LOY judge.
Vital Stats
Project: The Eli & Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem
Cell Research at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Size: 91,485 square feet
Cost: $65 million
Architect/Interior Designer: ZGF Architects LLP, Los Angeles
Lab Planner: Jacobs Consultancy, Solana Beach, Calif.
MEP Engineer: Affiliated Engineers, Inc., Madison, Wis.
Structural/Civil Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers, Los Angeles
General Contractor: Morley Construction, Santa Monica, Calif.
|
|
Published in R & D magazine: Vol. 53, No. 3, 2011, June
