Brown’s mission was to deliver 35 laboratory modules to support as many as 150 researchers, including faculty, laboratory staff, and student assistants by August 2004 in order to preserve existing research funding commitments and capture new ones. Funding was fixed and limited, making a strictly “Brown Standard” laboratory unrealistic. As a result, the construction budget for converting this existing structure was established to be more compatible with commercial grade laboratories.
 
The fit-out of the Biomed Laboratories building involved a formidable challenge: converting a pre-World War I cast-in-place concrete jewelry factory with an early 1960s addition and a timber framed annex into state-of-the-art laboratory space. Design challenges included narrow floor plates, high industrial windows, and small column bays with large columns. Site features included a nice interior courtyard, but a restricted service yard area. Structural capacity was provided by an existing heavy concrete frame but buckling timber floors had to be removed and replaced.

As an added challenge, the facility needed to incorporate flexible design elements to accommodate undefined future research requirements. The finished building provides laboratory modules and support spaces that meet Brown’s current program while allowing for future growth. The advanced laboratory research environment not only met Brown’s needs and standards but also helped revitalize an urban area by putting a vacant building to good use.

To ensure the success of this ambitious project, Brown expedited its traditional decision-making structure and design process. A design/build approach was utilized for the first time for a project of this significant size. Design reviews were limited to a focused building committee, eliminating the usual protocol of additional reviews with the board and facilities design/planning committee. Generic design with limited user involvement collapsed the traditional programming and planning phases into a four-week schematic design phase.

This first off-campus research facility at 70 Ship Street in Providence, Rhode Island’s former jewelry district was completed on budget and on schedule, and begins to fulfill Brown’s mission to expand beyond the “Hill.”

Project Information
Building Owner:		Brown University
Building Location:		Providence, Rhode Island UNITED STATES
Project Type:		Renovation
Principal Building Function:		Biomedical research laboratories
Project Delivery Method:		Design/Build
Project Timeline		Aug 2004 Completion Last known status: Completed
Construction Cost:		$18,500,000
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$176
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Auditorium Biomedical Education Education: Biomedical Laboratory Laboratory: Teaching Research: Biomedical
Total GSF:		105,000
Project Team
Architect		Tsoi/Kobus & Associates Inc.
Profile Created 10/01/2006
Last Updated 10/31/2006
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.