Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science

The $135-million building provides space where research in physics, biology, and chemistry all merge. The CIS is home to the Biological Sciences Division, the Physical Sciences Division, the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, the Ben May Institute for Cancer Research, the James Franck Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The 427,000-sf, seven-story structure is filled with special features and equipment. A three-story atrium serves as the interactive center with nearby conference rooms and dining facilities.

Long suites of open lab space encourage interaction among the researchers. The labs contain very few walls and doors. Common areas include open corridors where researchers and staff can see and talk to one another on different levels of the building.

Labs are designed for research in the areas of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology, synthetic chemistry, and chemical biology. Physical science labs provide space for cryogenics, optics, and laser-based research.

The facility also includes a 24,500-sf vivarium with isolation suite, X-ray processing room, molecular modeling center, fluorescence microscopy suite, labs for flow cytometry and radioisotopes, a crystallography suite, and an electronics shop.

Lab support space includes cleanrooms, computer rooms, imaging facilities and an NMR equipment lab. Core facilities house X-ray, diffraction microscopy, proteomics, gene sequencing, and microarray.
An extremely stable foundation that limits vibrations to 250 microinches per second serves the scientists who conduct vibration-sensitive experiments. The CIS has a large inventory of power-hungry instruments that use up to 9,000 kilowatts of power to operate. Although the utility company provided two feeds for the building, CIS is also equipped with two 1,750-kilowatt backup generators.

A custom-built elevator at 14-feet long and 9-feet wide, with a capacity load of 17,000 pounds, can transport large laser tables and other heavy laboratory equipment. Additionally CIS has five passenger elevators and one more passenger/freight elevator. A 4,000-pound chiller system should be more than adequate to service the building’s needs, even on a hot day. Nonetheless, plans exist to expand that capacity to 8,000 pounds.

Project Information

Building Owner:

University of Chicago

Building Location:

Chicago, Illinois UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction

Principal Building Function:

Biology, chemistry, and physics research

Project Timeline

Aug 2005	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Project Cost:

$135,000,000

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Biology
Chemistry
Education
Education: Physics
Interdisciplinary Research
Laboratory

Total GSF:

427,000

Project Team

Architect

Ellenzweig Inc.

Construction Management

IRB Construction Partners

Engineer - MEP

BR+A/Bard,Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers Inc.

Engineer - Structural

LeMessurier Consultants Inc.

Landscape Architect

Sasaki Associates

Profile Created 09/01/2007

Last Updated 10/12/2007

About the Reported Cost Figures

The cost figures reported are supplied by the firms that submitted these projects for publication, which in most cases are the designers or builders. Whereas these sources are intimately familiar with their projects, they may not be fully aware of the owners' finally-realized and recorded costs. In some cases, costs are truly and completely accounted for, and in others they represent a near approximation of the final costs. Costs have not been adjusted for year of construction, nor has any attempt been made to make regional cost adjustments.

Further, costs are not comparable on any kind of detailed standard costing model. Hence, it is possible for the cost of one building to include a steam boiler, while the cost of a comparable building might not include the boiler, if steam is being supplied from an already existing campus grid. Or, in another case, a building might include excess boiler capacity to supply steam to another building. Some submittals include fees or unusual site improvements as part of the construction costs, which others do not.

Fig. 1

Exterior

View of the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science at the University of Chicago. (Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago. Photo by Peter Kiar.)

Fig. 2

Atrium

“Continuity,” a bronze sculpture created by Virginio Ferrari in 1992, adorns the Kersten Family Atrium on the third floor of the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science at the University of Chicago. The sculpture was donated by RR Donnelley.

Fig. 3

Lab Interior

A senior research associate in the Ben May Cancer Research Institute moves into the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science at the University of Chicago. (Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago. Photo by John Easton.)

Fig. 4

Lab Interior

Moving the laboratory of a professor of pediatrics into the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science at the University of Chicago. (Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago. Photo by John Easton.)