Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering

Specialized program elements of the three-story facility include a flexible laboratory wing comprised of 22,000 nsf of wet laboratory space and 12,500 nsf of procedure, equipment and environmental areas, which include a nanofabrication lab, vivarium, and electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance suites. A satellite chilled water and electrical substation is housed in the basement that serves the entire East Campus.

Supporting the research space and creating a scholarly center for both undergraduate and graduate students and faculty, a three-story atrium connects the laboratory wing with faculty office pods, classrooms, a 250-seat auditorium, computer classrooms, student and faculty lounges, a library and seminar rooms.

The Biomedical Engineering Building is the first new building in the East Campus of Washington University campus and is sited and planned in accordance with the master plan for the University’s Engineering School complex.

It was important that Whitaker Hall not appear to be more prominent in massing or height than Brookings Hall, which marks the main campus entrance and visually dominates the eastern end of the hilltop campus. This challenge was complicated by the fact that there was a compelling desire to develop the east campus with three-story buildings to conserve land. The solution was to design a four-level structure, including one subterranean level, with a building scale that is broken down in various sized volumes, a roof that is “geometrically complex,” the creation of a basement level, and slightly reduced floor-to-floor heights. Clad in a facade of red Missouri Osage granite and limestone with slate roofs, Whitaker Hall expresses the collegiate Gothic architectural style that dominates the hilltop campus and gives appropriate deference to Brookings Hall.

The Schools of Engineering and Medicine at Washington University have collaborated closely for 40-plus years, but the Department of Biomedical Engineering was formally established in 1997. In 2001, U.S. News & World Report ranked the four-year-old department among the top 20 in the nation.

Project Information

Building Owner:

Washington University

Owner Contact:

Dr. Frank C. Yin, Director, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Building Location:

St. Louis, Mo. UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction

Principal Building Function:

Research

Project Delivery Method:

Construction Management

Project Timeline

Jan 1999	Planning Start
Aug 1999	Design Start
Jun 2001	Construction Start
Dec 2002	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Construction Cost:

$37,313,522

Cost Per Sq. Ft:

$325

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Auditorium
Biomedical
Chiller
Computers
Education
Education: Biomedical
Education: Classroom
Education: Faculty Office
Education: Lecture Or Seminar Hall
Education: Library
Education: Student Center
Engineering
Laboratory
Laboratory: Biomedical Research
Laboratory: Nanotechnology
Laboratory: Research
Laboratory: Teaching
Laboratory: Wet
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Research: Biomedical
Vivarium

Total GSF:

114,828

Total NSF:

62,993

Efficiency:

55%

Building Services:

RO Water, Compressed Air, Vacuum, Gas, N2

Structure/Foundation:

Concrete frame with drilled piers

Laboratory Parameters

Lab Module:

10' 6" x 27'

Casework Mat'l:

Cherry casework with epoxy resin countertops

Fume Hoods:

17 @ 5'; 2 @ 8'

Project Team

Architect

Shepley Bulfinch

Builder

McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

Consultant - Fire Protection

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

Consultant - Geotechnical

Shannon & Wilson Inc

Consultant - Laboratory Programmer

GPR Planners Collaborative, Inc.

Consultant - Structural

Zaldastani Associates, Inc.

Engineer - MEP

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

Profile Created 09/01/2004

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

Atrium

Fig. 2

Laboratory Interior

Fig. 3

Laboratory Support