The new HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a 260,000-ft2 facility that co-locates nonprofit and for-profit biomedical enterprises under one roof. Located in Huntsville, Ala., it is a unique example of a public/private technology-driven economic development initiative where the potential for interaction between seemingly unrelated technology fields is demonstrated and drove the physical design of the institute's built environment.
The institute is not located near one of the recognized centers of biotechnology expertise, such as Boston/Cambridge, or Research Triangle Park in N.C., so establishing an institute with the goal of attracting high-profile researchers and scientists involved risk. To date, however, the institute has been remarkably successful in attracting not only world-class researchers, but also industry partnerships with nearby established aerospace and defense institutions, as well as several national and international biotechnology organizations.
The warm, open and interactive atrium space is full of amenities, providing a commons space that is institute’s collaborative core and its public face. All photos: Dave Dawson Photography. |
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The visionaries of the HudsonAlpha Institute, successful entrepreneurs themselves, wanted to move innovative biotechnology products through the development pipeline much faster than the traditional incubator business model found in academia. By partnering developing biotechnology companies with world-class researchers and scientists, they hoped to create a collaborative environment where fast-track “bench-to-bedside” programs could thrive.
They chose to manifest their idea in what would become the HudsonAlpha Institute, located in the new biotechnology campus of the Cummings Research Park, the second-largest research park in the United States. The state of Alabama provided the funds for the construction of the facility with hopes that the institute would fuel a greater biotechnology presence in Northern Alabama.
Recruiting distinguished talent The team developed a three-fold mission for the institute:
- To create a genomics-based applied research institute to explore promising approaches for improving human health and well being.
- To create the infrastructure that supports new technology company formation.
- To provide educational outreach to nurture the next generation of the biotech workforce, including technicians and entrepreneurs.
To accomplish these goals, the institute’s founders needed to attract world-class researchers and scientists, and promising post-incubator biotechnology companies, to live in Huntsville and work at the institute. They needed a facility that could woo highly qualified candidates to Huntsville from biotech hotbeds such as the West Coast, Boston and Research Triangle Park. Huntsville, ranked as the fifth best-performing city in the country by the Milken Institute in 2008, has much to offer its citizens. The city benefits from a high standard of living at a low cost, despite its distance from academic hot spots, but stakeholders in the success of the institute were concerned about what they would need to offer potential biotech candidates to be competitive in the market.
The development team approached Cooper Carry, a national design firm, to design a facility that would help the institute attract world-class talent to Huntsville. The goal for the project’s design was to showcase a unique vision that integrates technology-driven entrepreneurship with basic research. In the words its director, Richard Meyers, the institute represents “an opportunity to build something unique. We can now go in, make discoveries that are basic, and then immediately see application for these in things like human health, the environment and energy.”
The institute’s design was driven by three primary objectives:
- Operating cost for tenants and research teams must remain low. The institute, a world-class, state-of-the-art facility, was delivered for less than 50% of the costs of similar facilities located in the biotech centers located on the East and West coasts.
- The environment should accommodate change easily. Both shared and separate laboratory facilities were designed to provide flexibility and collaboration among researchers. To control costs, laboratories were designed to be open and flexible, allowing easy reconfiguration should space needs change. Shared laboratories would provide a cost advantage to budding post-incubator companies while still providing all necessary services. Young and promising biotech firms, the business arm of the institute, were drawn into one of the two wings of the building, and research teams were placed in the other.
- The 900 talented scientists, entrepreneurs and technicians that the building houses should be brought together in an environment that creates a strong sense of “community.” The institute’s mission is to fast-track discoveries through collaboration between researchers and companies, and the building needed to facilitate interaction between these groups. Researchers, so used to working within traditionally closed laboratories, needed reasons to be pulled from their silos in order for true collaboration to take place. To this end, a commons was designed featuring a warm, open and interactive atrium space full of amenities that would contrast the laboratory and office spaces. The commons was envisioned as the institute’s collaborative core and face to the public.
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Biotech firms and HudsonAlpha researchers share space in the two-wing facility, with a busy atrium as a linking core. Plan: Cooper Carry.
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The institute opens its doors The institute opened in April 2008, funded with a mix of public and private sources. It hit the ground running with high-profile recruits including Richard Myers, who joined the institute as director from his prior position as chairman of the genetics department at Stanford Univ. and head of the Stanford Human Genome Center. The attraction for Myers, according to O’Neal Smitherman, executive VP of the institute, was that “he became frustrated at the speed with which he was able to take his discoveries and turn them into something that was useful to humankind within academia. [In academia] there’s not a transparent mechanism for having that happen. And this was an opportunity to do that.”
Other notable investigators include Jian Han; Devin Absher, Jeremy Schmutz and Jane Grimwood.
The multi-tenant, post-incubator wing provides 120,000-ft2 of flexible laboratory and office space specifically designed to support biotechnology businesses. The post-incubator wing is currently 100% occupied by 13 established biotechnology firms including Applied Genomics, Open Biosystems, New Century Pharmaceuticals, Expression Genetics and MI Microarrays.
 To control costs, laboratories were designed to be open and flexible, allowing easy reconfiguration should space needs change. |
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The resulting building is one that is high-tech and high-touch, a place that comfortably supports the needs of users with vastly different ages and backgrounds. While the facility is driven by state-of-the-art technology—much of it visible—the overall impression is one of warmth, comfort and creativity.
The atrium, connecting the research and post-incubator wings, is balanced with neutral, warm earth tones. Comfortable seating is scattered throughout the lobby and atrium, and informal meeting niches can be found on each level. These spaces were designed to encourage informal conversations between building occupants and facilitate information sharing. Principal investigators’ offices all face the open lobby with jutting balconies and windows so that colleagues can quickly see if they are available for a conversation. Additional amenities, including a café and library, are located on the atrium level. All of these spaces provide a carefully designed set of experiences with the intent of creating chance encounters between building occupants, where innovation and creativity come to life.
“When I walk into this building every day, the theme that hits me is communication,” says Adam Hott, coordinator for educational outreach for the institute. “I think one of the things this building does is speaks to that theme. Like the glass wall offices, you can’t help but to see people in their offices across the atrium. There’s Joel Pete in Microarrays, sitting at his desk. He’s the head of that company. I know Joel because I see him every day.”
The institute was aided in its quest for competitive rent rates by comparatively low-cost construction in Alabama—it has achieved what incubator and post-incubator facilities located in connection with academic institutions in costly areas have reached with nearly half the budget—but also because laboratory and office spaces were designed to be flexible and open, reducing first costs to user groups. Companies can quickly reconfigure spaces for their rapidly changing business or laboratory needs with minimal cost.
More than 50% of the facility is dedicated to space for various biotechnology research endeavors. The design concept provides a flexible and efficient environment that minimizes first cost to the project owner while reducing the impact of future fit-up operations. A system of accessible vertical utility distribution closets and open plenum service corridors allows the building operator to change services without severely disrupting operations.
An anchor for the community The institute is the first building in the Cummings Research Park’s new biotechnology precinct, and has set plans for other, similar and support buildings on the campus in motion. The 200-acre planned precinct has multiple additional phases planned along a mile-long corridor, promising thousands of additional jobs. As mentioned in the Milken Institute’s 2008 Best Performing Cities report, “Huntsville is beginning to establish new growth in the life sciences as the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology opened its doors late last year.” (For more information about the Cummings development, see the expanded edition of Lab Design newsletter.)
To date, the institute has provided the Huntsville community with 900 new jobs. The institute offers growing, post-incubator companies the opportunity to participate in a true translational research environment for a lower price than could be expected in an existing and established biotechnology hub. In the institute’s short operation, the relationships between basic researchers and entrepreneurial companies have resulted in two patents owned by the institute, the recruitment of high-profile research scientists, significant relationships with multiple national and international biotechnology organizations, and the education of hundreds of school-aged children who have been exposed to the biotechnology field as a career option.
The HudsonAlpha Institute illustrates changes in the scientific environment. Changes in technology and communication have allowed a dynamic and effective institute to exist physically isolated from similar biotechnology clusters. Along with the concepts on which the institute was founded—to use biotechnology to improve human health, stimulate economic development and inspire Alabama’s youth to seek careers in science—the institute’s unique high-tech and high-touch design contributed heavily to the recruitment of the world-renowned researchers necessary for the institute’s continued credibility. The design of the institute embodies its founding principles and allows these principles to manifest within the building’s occupants.
On a large scale, the unique success of Huntsville has been echoed in the HudsonAlpha Institute. Both are physically isolated, but have enjoyed growth due to the region’s low cost of living, driven entrepreneurs and a thriving culture of innovation. The institute is a promising case study on unique initiatives to foster economic growth and improve the health and happiness of patients around the world. Its guiding principles can be applied to other communities looking to expand their involvement in the biotechnology market.
Mark D. Jensen, AIA, LEED AP is a principal in Cooper CarryScience+Technology Studio, Atlanta (www.coopercarry.com).
Published in Laboratory Design: Vol. 14, No. 7, July 2009
