Laboratory Retrofit | Tradeline, Inc.

The challenge was in converting the 20-year-old, 62,000-sf facility constructed to suit the specialized needs of the petroleum industry into an updated general chemistry laboratory. The new facility accommodates six research laboratory groups encompassing a wide variety of industrial, chemical, and technical service operations. Each lab group utilizes a variety of potentially hazardous chemicals and requires specialized utilities including hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, de-ionized water, natural gas, steam, compressed air, and vacuum.

The retrofit required adding fume hoods, modifying bench-top services, modifying HVAC, mechanical, and electrical systems, and upgrading architectural details.

The facility design includes an administrative plan for controlling the types and quantities of the chemicals in each lab, involving designated control areas for chemical storage, use, and disposal. The plan coordinates Solutia's practices and protocols, keeping them consistent with local, state, and federal codes.

Project Information

Building Owner:

Solutia Inc.

Owner Contact:

Kent Vesvick, Technical Team Leader; Dave Baumgartner, Project Manager

Building Location:

Webster Groves, MO UNITED STATES

Project Type:

Renovation

Principal Building Function:

R&D

Project Delivery Method:

Design/Build

Project Timeline

Feb 1998	Planning Start
Aug 1998	Design Start
Dec 1998	Construction Start
May 1999	Target Completion

Project Cost:

$6,000,000

Construction Cost:

$4,700,000

Cost Per Sq. Ft:

$77

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Laboratory: Chemistry
R&D

Total GSF:

62,000

Total NSF:

38,400

Efficiency:

62%

Building Population:

100

People Density:

620 gsf/person

Building Services:

DI, N2, compressed air, gas, H, steam, vacuum, CW

Special Equip:

pH pretreatment facility, discharged water pH is automatically monitored and treated if necessary

Office Size:

10' 6" x 7' 6" NSF

Structure/Foundation:

Concrete foundations, beam, and slab

Laboratory Parameters

Lab Module:

10' 6" x 23' 6"

Casework Mat'l:

Acid-resistant countertops and casework

Fume Hoods:

96 fume hoods; 79 6' wide bench tops; 17 6' x 7' walk-ins

Project Team

Architect

Flad Architects

Builder

McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

Consultant - Electrical

Clark, Richardson & Biskup Consulting Engineers, Inc.

Consultant - Laboratory Planner

Health, Education + Research Associates Inc.

Consultant - Mechanical

Clark, Richardson & Biskup Consulting Engineers, Inc.

Programming

Health, Education + Research Associates Inc.

Programming

McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

Supplier - Casework

Fisher Hamilton

Supplier - Fume Hoods

Fisher Hamilton

Profile Created 03/01/2000

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 Bench