A five-story atrium is at the heart of the building. On each lab floor offices ring the central atrium, while the laboratories are located around the perimeter of the building. Offices are placed outside the labs to encourage researcher interaction. The laboratories are designed around modules in groups of three, five, or six. A three-module lab, for example, has two 12-foot island benches, two wall benches, one chemical fume hood, and six workstations. Freestanding equipment is located in nearby alcoves. Shared equipment rooms, instrument rooms, radioisotope rooms, dark rooms, tissue culture rooms, special purpose rooms, and controlled environment rooms are located adjacent to the labs throughout the building. A freezer storage room and an 8,200-sf vivarium are located in the basement. Researchers also have access to a 4,200-sf headhouse for plant and insect growth, and a 7,900-sf greenhouse.

More than 19,000 sf of conference and meeting space is located throughout the building including a 250-seat auditorium in the basement and conference rooms on every level, with the fifth-floor conference room available for social events. Each lab floor also contains two lunch rooms and five informal interaction areas. The Catalyst Café, a reading room, teaching labs, and computer labs provide additional collaboration areas for LSC’s occupants.

Project Information
Building Owner:		University of Missouri-Columbia
Building Location:		Columbia, Missouri UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Agricultural research
Project Timeline		Sep 2004 Completion Last known status: Completed
Project Cost:		$60,000,000
Construction Cost:		$42,566,300
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$206
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Education Environmental Science Greenhouse Laboratory Office: Researcher Vivarium
Total GSF:		207,000
Project Team
Laboratory Planner		Research Facilities Design (RFD)
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.