Natural Science and Engineering Research Building

The $85-million interdisciplinary facility brings together researchers who need labs with a lot of infrastructure to study electrical engineering, material science, biology, chemistry, physics, and neuroscience.

Labs are divided into three levels of fume hood density: low, medium, and high. A total of 180 fume hoods are spread out in concentrations as intense as four fume hoods per 800-sf module (typically accommodating one PI and four to six graduate students). The fume hood scheme is expected to promote interdisciplinary interaction by grouping researchers with similar needs together.

All mechanical equipment is housed in the basement, with exhaust discharged via shafts at either end and in the center of the building. Fresh, single-pass air is cooled and distributed through the office areas, then cycled through the labs and out through the top. Electrical switchgear is also in the basement. However, power closets on each floor make it easy to boost power to any of the labs to accommodate heavier-than-normal loads.

Modular, “mix-and-match” lab furniture is easily reconfigurable. Many of the cabinets, available in several models, are on wheels, and in many of the labs, tables are not fastened to the floor. The overhead carriers that deliver all the services to the benchtop are also modular. Mechanisms embedded in the concrete floor above provide a support for the suspended shelf units and utilities, offering plug-in access for gases and data lines.

A group of smaller specialty labs stretches out behind the lab modules, accommodating more specialized equipment, such as laser spectroscopy. Some of these specialty labs open directly into the linear equipment room, which is essentially a service corridor along the perimeter of the building. At 12 feet wide, however, it furnishes four extra feet of permanent space for gear like refrigerators and centrifuges, while maintaining an 8-foot-wide path for circulation and freight, chemical, and gas delivery. Data outlets are available so devices can be connected to the Internet for monitoring or alarming. Periodic openings in the wall provide access to utility hook-ups should new services like chilled water or compressed air be needed in a lab module.

In addition to their high degree of functionality, the linear equipment rooms are lined with clerestory windows that brighten the space with bountiful natural light.

The building’s multiple core rooms include a cleanroom, high-resolution microscopy, characterization, autoclaves, cold rooms, and focused ion beam systems housed in the basement.

Casual gathering areas are furnished with low tables and chairs and wireless Internet access. Many of these spots are clustered around the communicating stairway that runs between the first and second floors, and then the third and fourth floors. (It skips the second-to-third level for fire code reasons.)

Each floor has two conference rooms, a smaller one at the central core, looking out onto open areas, and a larger one tucked away at one end of the lab wing. Designed to accommodate about 25 people, the larger rooms have balconies that cantilever off the edge of the building.

Clustered in groups of six per wing along the building front, the glass-walled faculty offices are all a uniform 146 sf, exact replicas of each other. In a scheme borrowed from industry, graduate students and post-doctoral scientists are assigned to cubicles in an open-plan arrangement, enjoying the same kind of natural light and views as the permanent faculty.

For both safety and space economy, the labs themselves have no sit-down desks. Instead, moveable under-bench cabinets are available with a slide-out writing surface.

The decision not to incorporate classrooms or department offices in the multidisciplinary building simplified planning and space allocation. It also enhances security by limiting interior access. A cardkey system keeps unauthorized users out—not necessarily because the research is proprietary, but because of potential hazards in the cleanroom and the research labs.

Project Information

Building Owner:

University of Texas, Dallas

Building Location:

Richardson, Texas UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction

Principal Building Function:

Physics, biology, chemistry, electrical engineering, and neurosciences research

Project Delivery Method:

Guaranteed Maximum Price

Project Timeline

Mar 2004	Planning Start
Mar 2004	Design Start
Nov 2004	Construction Start
Dec 2006	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Project Cost:

$85,000,000

Construction Cost:

$61,500,000

Cost Per Sq. Ft:

$323

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Biology
Chemistry
Cleanroom
Conference Room
Education
Education: Physics
Engineering
Laboratory: Teaching
Office

Total GSF:

190,195

Total NSF:

113,604

Efficiency:

60%

Building Population:

336

People Density:

565 gsf/person

Planning Module:

10'-8" x 30'

Office Size:

10' x 14'-6" NSF

Power Req:

Lighting: 1.6 w/nsf Equipment: 20 W/nsf Power: 12 w/nsf

HVAC Req:

1.67 cfm/nsf

Project Team

Architect - Design

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP

Architect of Record

PageSoutherlandPage

Builder

Centex Bateson

Engineer - MEP

PageSoutherlandPage

Engineer - Civil

Datum Engineering, Inc.

Engineer - Structural

Datum Engineering, Inc.

Laboratory Planner

GPR Planners Collaborative, Inc.

Supplier - Casework

Fisher Hamilton

Supplier - Fume Hoods

Fisher Hamilton

Supplier - Furniture

Steelcase Corporate Industries

Profile Created 01/24/2007

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

Balconies that cantilever off the edge of the building add to the drama of the colorful façade of anodized stainless steel shingles, which progress from reddish orange to purple throughout the day due to the effects of sunlight.

Fig. 2

Communication Stair

The communicating stairway that runs between the first and second floors, and then the third and fourth floors. (It skips the second-to-third level for fire code reasons.) Glass walls on the offices and labs allow natural light to penetrate to the interior.

Fig. 3

Linear Equipment Room

The naturally lit linear equipment room, essentially a 12-foot-wide service corridor that accommodates noisy equipment as well as circulation and freight, chemical, and gas delivery. (Photo by Robert Canfield courtesy of ZGF and Bruce Gnade, University of Texas at Dallas.)

Fig. 4

Faculty Office

The glass-walled faculty offices are all a uniform 146 sf. While none of the offices actually has a window to the outside, they all have a pleasant view, which is essentially the same for every one. Faculty sitting in their offices can literally see all the way through to the back of the building.

Fig. 5

Lab Interior

Natural light from the open office spaces filters into the glass-walled research laboratories. (Photo by Robert Canfield courtesy of ZGF and Bruce Gnade, University of Texas at Dallas.)

Fig. 6

Open Office

In a scheme borrowed from industry, graduate students and post-doctoral scientists are assigned to cubicles in an open-plan arrangement, enjoying the same kind of natural light and views as the permanent faculty.