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.
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.