Leichtag Biomedical Research

The facility is a 146,000-gsf, four-story building with one below-grade level. Spread out over four levels is 40,000 sf of wet and dry lab space with 30 lab modules per floor, cold rooms, procedure rooms, and dedicated dark rooms. Office areas are at the northwest and southeast portion of the facility on all four levels. Open lab areas with services and support are in the middle of the building.

Unique to the Biomedical Research facility is the use of outside walkways allowing for open corridors. Researchers can step directly from the labs to the outside for a break and fresh air. The space is only counted at 50 percent in the efficiency versus gross calculation. The walkways also serve as sunshades for the lab spaces.

Lab modules are a narrow 10 feet: 2 ½ feet bench space, 5 feet of working space, and another 2 ½ feet of bench space. While this may be considered cramped quarters, over the scope of the entire building it provides space for more researchers per floor and, therefore, creating more revenue for a projects.

The 16 ½ -foot floor-to-floor height provides space to organize the utilities and run the larger ductwork down the center of the building. The minimal amount of ductwork reaching out to the far parts of the lab allows for full-height glass walls at the perimeter. Sloping ceilings from the labs and clerestory windows bring natural light to the interior spaces.

The 15,000-sf, basement-level vivarium houses 18 identical animal holding rooms with rodent cage connections for watering and exhaust systems, eight special procedure rooms, cage and rack washing areas, and a tunnle wash area for steam sterilization along with a fully automated feed and bedding system—the first of its kind installed on the West Coast. It also includes a computer-controlled animal watering system using reverse osmosis water. Seven feet of interstitial space allows for movement and easier access to the HVAC system.

The facility is complemented with a five-story atrium, known as the Scholarly Interaction Space, open from the first floor to the roof level, and a 2,000-sf conference center. The SIS also houses a multi-story suspended dichoroic glass sculpture. Specially designated exhaust fans are designed to evacuate smoke in the space at a rate of 100,000 cfm. By code, those fans must evacuate smoke in the Scholarly Interaction Space in a certain amount of time. As part of the system, the windows in the SIS have operator mechanisms that, when triggered by the need for smoke evacuation, open the windows in the atrium and allow the outside air to come in.

Project Information

Building Owner:

University of California, San Diego

Owner Contact:

M. Boone Hellmann, FAIA, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Campus Architect

Building Location:

La Jolla, California UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction

Principal Building Function:

Biomedical research

Project Delivery Method:

Lump Sum

Project Timeline

Jun 2004	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Project Cost:

$57,000,000

Construction Cost:

$45,000,000

Cost Per Sq. Ft:

$308

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Biomedical
Conference Room
Education
Education: Biomedical
Interdisciplinary Research
Laboratory
Laboratory: Biomedical Research
Laboratory: Dry And Wet
Laboratory: Research
Laboratory: Teaching
Office: Researcher
Research
Research: Biomedical
Vivarium

Total GSF:

146,000

Efficiency:

60%

Building Population:

500

Building Services:

Centralized lab utilities include CO2, gas, and vacuum. No compressed air. VAB

Special Equip:

Tunnel/cage washer and automatic feed/bedding equipment

Power Req:

Lighting 3.5 watts/nsf Equipment 23.5 watts/nsf Power 3.0 watts/nsf

HVAC Req:

1.88 cfm/nsf supply air 1.76 cfm/nsf exhaust air

Laboratory Parameters

Lab Module:

10' x 28' 6

Project Team

Architect

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP

Consultant - Accoustical/AV

Shen, Milson & Wilke Associates

Consultant - Laboratory Planner

Earl Walls Associates

Consultant - Landscape Architect

Katherine Spitz and Associates

Engineer - MEP

Fundament & Associates

Engineer - Structural

KPFF Consulting Engineers

General Contractor

McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

Supplier - Biosafety Cabinets

NUAIRE Inc.

Supplier - Cabinetry

ISEC Inc.

Supplier - Cage Washers

STERIS Corporation

Supplier - Casework

Fisher Hamilton

Supplier - Elevators

Otis Elevator

Supplier - Fume Hood Controls

Phoenix Controls Corporation

Supplier - Fume Hoods

Fisher Hamilton

Supplier - HVAC

Johnson Controls Inc.

Supplier - Rack Washers

STERIS Corporation

Supplier - Tunnel Washers

STERIS Corporation

Profile Created 02/09/2005

Last Updated 04/04/2006

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

Lab Interior

Fig. 2

Vivarium

Fig. 3

Atrium

Fig. 4

Mechanical Space