The Lab: State-of-the-art facility provides gateway to university’s scientific corridor
by Jonathan McGaha | July 31, 2010 12:00 am
Home to some of the most technologically advanced laboratory research and teaching space,the University of Cincinnati’s new Center of Academic Research Excellence is among the largest health sciences facilities in the nation. Known as the CARE/Crawley Building, the 1,100,000-square foot(102,190-m2) facility provides collaboration space for researchers and students.
The university, which is known for its use of signature architects, selected San Francisco-based design architect STUDIOS Architecture and architect of record Harley Ellis Devereaux, Cincinnati, to design the renovation and expansion of the complex. UC alumnus and STUDIOS Architecture Principal Erik Sueberkrop, FAIA, LEED AP, was the lead designer on the project.
A New Gateway
“The University and the design team wanted to create an architecturally significant building that nurtures innovative thinking, scholarly collaboration and scientific discovery among researchers and students,” said Lou Hartman, studio leader at Harley Ellis Devereaux. “We were careful to mix humanistic elements with technology and sustainability in order to achieve our goals.”
“A primary goal was to reinforce the University of Cincinnati’s vision for the project which included creating a state-of-the-art health sciences facility with the beat research and teaching facilities that promoted collaboration and that was a focus for the health sciences complex of buildings,” Sueberkrop said.
The new facility is made up of a 300,000-square foot (27,870-m2) renovation of the existing 900,000-square-foot (83,610-m2) Medical Sciences Building and 239,000-square-foot (22,203-m2) addition of the Center for Academic Research, and features more than 70,000 square feet (6,503 m2) of wet and dry research laboratories on six floors, as well as a fitness center, food service area, breakout areas, lounges, bookstore, retail, conferencing and lecture halls, library and other student life spaces. The new facility is home to the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing, as well as a Student Commons to be used by the general university student body.
“This is a building filled with possibilities,” said David Stern, MD, dean of the College of Medicine and vice president of health affairs at UC. “It will serve as a highly visible gateway to the Academic Health Center and house some of the most technically advanced laboratory research and teaching space in the nation.”
An Urban Room
The original 1970s concrete high-rise structure was missing the interaction space the university desired, so the architects created an open and urban-like setting to encourage interactivity and a sense of collegial community, with ground floor “study huts” that create quiet enclosed spaces for meetings, discussions or study with the activity of the atrium. “Volumes of the new building are fractured in order to create more neighborhood-like research spaces and to allow for better visual penetration into the structure,” Sueberkrop said.
Connecting the existing and new buildings is a nine-story glass-sided atrium that is spanned by seven glass bridges that are designed to withstand 800 pounds of pressure per square inch (140 kN/m). Novum Structures LLC, Menomonee Falls, Wis., was the design-builder for approximately 15,000 square feet (1,394 m2) of curtainwalls, along with the structural support system, roof and long span joist and glass skybridges.
While the atrium bathes the interior in natural light, radiating warmth and openness, the building’s striking exterior design encourages innovation andworks to inspire students and faculty toward new approaches in research.
The exterior features 125,000 square feet (11,613 m2) of 0.03-inch- (0.8-mm-) thick DLSS 1-inch(25-mm) VM Quartz Zinc Plus panels and 0.03-inch thick Flatlock VM Quartz Zinc Plus panels from Umicore Building Products USA Inc., Raleigh, N.C.The panels were installed by Mohawk Construction and Supply, McMurray, Pa.
“We tried to use materials that were durable and timeless, forward looking, and that would knit the health science complex to the rest of the campus,” Sueberkrop explained. “Many of the new buildings on campus had zinc in their palette as well as traditional campus materials like red brick.”
“The exposed laboratory space, the energy of the atrium and a dynamic site demonstrates to anyone who visits our campus that our medical research is filled with energetic people,” said Mary Beth McGrew, university architect and associate vice president, planning, design and construction.
Goals of Gold
Certified LEED Gold by the United States Green Building Council, Washington, D.C., the CARE/Crawley building is the university’s fifth LEED certified building and its first Gold.
All landscape irrigation is provided by collected rainwater in an underground 90,000-gallon(342,000-liter) stormwater detention system, which also reduces the strain on the municipal sewer system by collecting the bulk of rainfall and allowing it to migrate gradually into the storm sewer.
Designed to reduce the urban heat island effect, the project minimized the hardscape areas, such as sidewalks and plazas, and used reflective white roofs. Along with natural landscape, these elements work to minimize the building’s heat absorption, resulting in real energy savings.
The atrium and research labs have access to natural lighting, while automatic light sensors help save energy by limiting the building’s outdoor light pollution.
The atrium, designed to emulate the outdoors, is naturally ventilated during suitable exterior conditions. “There are low level glass louvers over the entrance and upper level glass louvers on the opposite sides of the atrium for heat stack ventilation effect,” Sueberkrop explained. “They are mechanically operated by sensors with building management system override. These louvers are also activated by the fire alarm system for smoke evacuation of the atrium.” Naco, Bridgnorth Shropshire, United Kingdom, manufactured the louvers.
During construction, nearly 98 percent of the construction-related waste was recycled. The previous building, a concrete parking garage, was recycled on site and used in part as fill to the surrounding landscape. Additionally, there was a focus on using locally and regionally extracted and manufactured materials for the building’s construction.
Additionally, the building provides a 30 percent reduction in energy use of ASHRAE 90.1-1999.
Wonderful Adventure
Completed in 2008, the CARE/Crawley Building is named for UC alumna Edith Crawley who bequeathed $12 million to the Academic Health Center to bolster research into eye disease for older adults and to support medical students and professionals dedicated to eye research. The Edith J. Crawley Vision Science Research Laboratory is on the building’s fifth floor.
Sueberkrop won the Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award for the building design in 2002. The project also received the Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award in 2009 and the 2009 Honor Award in Building from AIA Michigan.
“Being part of creating such an important University ‘Town Center’ has been a wonderful adventure,” Sueberkrop said. “The ability to connect a 9-story building addition to an existing 10-story building and open the two to each other created wonderful opportunities to reuse space in creative ways. The fact that the users and the university feels that it really works as it was intended has been rewarding to all involved.”
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