The Project: Columbia Univ., Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Campus, Palisades, N.Y. 69,300 ft2 environmental sciences research facility. $34.2 million.
This project was named 2009 Lab of the Year for overall excellence in design. The facility also won a 2009 Merit Award for excellence in architecture for a new building from SCUP (the Society for College and University Planning) in conjunction with the AIA-CAE (American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education).
The Team: Payette, Boston (architect); Vanderweil Engineers, Boston (MEP engineer); Weidlinger Associates, Cambridge, Mass. (structural engineer); Torcon Inc., Red Bank, N.J. (construction manager).
The Users: Well known for its excellent work in earth sciences, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Campus is the home of more than 200 research scientists. Global-scale investigations are the mission of the site, which is a key component of the Earth Institute at Columbia Univ. Projects include investigation of global climate change as well as earthquakes, volcanoes, nonrenewable resources, environmental hazards and related issues. Teams are led by professors and postdocs, with participation from about 90 graduate students as well as undergraduates pursuing summer internships. The 150-acre campus occupies a scenic property on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson River at Palisades, N.Y., originally a private estate.
The new geochemistry building replaces an outdated 1950s-era facility and supports more than 70 geochemists who exploit chemical tracers to investigate all aspects of the planet. Labs fall into the four general categories of mass spec, instrumentation, wet chemistry and specialty labs.
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| View of the main entry from the west; the lab wing is at the left; the office wing at the right. All photos © Warren Jager Photography. |
The Schedule: Construction commenced in September 2006, just a week before the death of major donor Gary C. Comer. The facility was dedicated in November 2007.
The Goals: Columbia Univ. required new and better lab space to support researchers studying the dynamics of the solid earth, circulation of oceans and atmosphere, and transport of materials via wind and water, as well as other planetary science fields. Climate science is a particular emphasis. Due to the nature of the work, much of which demands technically sophisticated space to support specialized tools, the building is essentially a collection of core labs rather than generic research spaces. The client also needed office space to house the investigators working in the building.
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The plan of level 1 (ground floor) shows the typical arrangement of lab and office facilities, arranged in dual wings clustered around a pair of atriums. A large seminar room at the east end accommodates the entire geochemistry department. All plans: Payette.
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| By creating two wings, with different floor-to-floor heights for offices and labs, the design team was able to minimize the building footprint and maximize efficiency. |
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In light of the campus’s environmental mission, sustainability was a key goal. Columbia wanted to minimize land disturbance, preserve the existing landscape as much as possible, and create a building that would function in an environmentally-efficient manner. These decisions ensured that the facility would appropriately reflect its research focus.
The Solutions: The original master plan for the site called for the building to be located on an undeveloped site, halfway up a densely forested hillside. To limit land disturbance and preserve views from the Hudson River Valley, the team opted to put the building lower down the hillside, in a shallow natural valley, in place of an existing parking lot. (A replacement, 85-space pervious lot was set back from the river on a less sensitive site.) The building’s rectangular footprint was oriented so the narrow side faces the river, further diminishing its visual impact.
An added bonus of the “valley” siting was the fact that the soil base in that zone was deeper than anywhere else on campus. This allowed construction to proceed with less rock excavation than would have been required in the original site, and also allowed many of the principal mechanical components, including air handling units, to be set below grade instead of on a rooftop penthouse.
The program entailed an unusually high office-to-lab ratio, with more than 60 office spaces desired, compared with only about 30 lab spaces. (Labs represent ~20,300 assignable ft2; office space is ~8,800 ft2.) To minimize the building footprint and improve sustainability, the team created a “skip-stop” scheme whereby one wing of the rectangular building is a three-story office unit (10 ft floor to floor) and the other is a two-story block of labs (15 ft floor to floor). Between the wings, a pair of clerestory-lit atriums provide space for casual interaction and are crisscrossed by open stairs for easy wing-to-wing access.
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| This mass spec lab for measuring noble gases is representative of the specialized lab facilities. All the labs face north and enjoy views of the rest of the campus through extensive glazing. |
The two-wing scheme also led to better sustainability since the office zone is completely separate from an HVAC standpoint. Offices have individual fan-coil units and are equipped with operable windows; they face an undeveloped forested area, providing beautiful views for the occupants.
The lab side of the facility faces the rest of the campus and was built over a partially-underground level that includes a large mechanical room, loading dock, and electronics/machine shop, plus specialty labs for gas exchange/CO2 monitoring, rock prep, high temperature/pressure work, and high-precision instruments. The main lab level is primarily devoted to specialty labs, including geodynamics, helium tritium prep, CO2, clorofluorocarbons, and x-ray/probes, plus three large mass spec labs. The third level houses all the building’s wet chemistry spaces, supporting work on petrology, sediments, paleoceanography, environmental geochemistry and exposure assessment, radioactivity, radioisotopes, sediment/ice noble gas chemistry, and cosmogenic dating. An inductively coupled plasma mass spec lab is also housed on the third floor, as well as an ultraclean lab. (For details on some of the building’s specialty labs, and a section showing their location within the building, see the expanded edition at www.labdesignnews.com/may2009.)
Each lab’s location is related to its research; for instance, labs where argon is used in mass specs are physically remote from the labs where trace quantities of argon must be measured.
Informal collaborative space is provided in the building’s two atriums, with seating, map storage, open library space and a small kitchenette easily accessible. A ground-floor seminar room at the end of the east atrium accommodates the entire geochemistry division with 90 seats; doors open onto a deck with a partial view to the Hudson River. The second level of the office wing also includes a 16-seat videoconference room that opens onto a deck with a view of the Hudson River Valley through a break in the tree canopy. Large sliding doors offer an easy flow of traffic from indoors to outdoors for special events.
The Highlights: The building’s users enjoy an unusual combination of attractive office space and state-of-the-art labs. Private offices are allocated a modest 120- to 180-ft2, but each office includes a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass. The operable windows and individual fan-coil units give occupants a high degree of control over their environment; occupancy sensors were installed to make sure fan-coil units were not consuming an undue amount of energy while users were not present. Roller shades, which occupy a slot at the building perimeter when not in use, provide customized shading. Door sidelights allow daylight to penetrate into the adjacent atrium/corridor.
In process for LEED Silver certification, the building has multiple energy-saving features. The lab wing has a VAV HVAC system; because of the office wing’s low-tech design, metal ductwork is almost entirely limited to the lab wing. High-efficiency chillers, energy recovery coils, and high-efficiency light fixtures were installed.
Water conservation measures include the use of ultra-low-flow plumbing fixtures and irrigation-free landscaping. Stormwater is channeled over porous pavement and infiltration systems. Site-sensitivity strategies, in addition to those already discussed, include exterior lights and signs designed to minimize light pollution. Low-VOC-emitting paints, adhesives, sealants and carpeting were selected.
For more information about the special labs in the Comer building, see the expanded edition: www.labdesignnews.com/may2009.
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Each private office features an operable window and expansive view of the forested hillside.
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| The east atrium serves as an informal dining area and a prefunction space for the seminar room. |
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The Results: Lab of the Year judges complimented the site sensitivity and intelligent layout of the lab. Judge Victoria David, AIA, VP/director laboratory design, Leo A Daly Architects, Denver, says, “This is really a handsome building, and the design team made the effort to optimize its location and minimize its visibility on a lovely site. They made a narrow footprint and used the existing parking lot for the site. The building profile appears to be at or below the tree canopy…. I particularly appreciated the ‘skip-stop’ design parti of the offices, the central area and the labs.”
Judge Richard Johnson, product director, strategic marketing, corporate alliances, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Two Rivers, Wis., adds, “The separation of the two zones, office from lab, completely addressed the engineering issue of separating low-energy zones from high-energy zones, and in turn reducing the annual operating costs.”
Users appreciate the ambience of the new facility, which represents a major improvement over the prior lab. “It certainly is a wonderful place to work,” says Wallace S. Broecker, Newbury professor of earth and environmental sciences. “The magnificent windows create an inspiring setting.”
The Contact: James H. Collins Jr., FAIA, LEED AP, Payette Associates, 617-895-1000, jcollinsjr@payette.com.
Published in Laboratory Design: Vol. 14, No. 5, May 2009
