Also known as the Mitchell BRSB, the 485,740-sf facility serves as a cornerstone for the Texas Medical Research Center, with connections to other M.D. Anderson Cancer Center facilities and the Clinical Research Building. The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is housed on the third floor of the Mitchell BSRB.

The 16-story building is a full interstitial building, with even numbered floors serving as interstitial space for the odd numbered floors below. The interstitial floors are designed as "walk-on ceilings" providing continual access to the MEP systems for regular maintenance and renovation, without disrupting the main lab floors. A two-level penthouse contains exhaust fans for the building.

Level one contains a public lobby, security station, support space, and building loading dock. A 120,000-sf vivarium is split between the basement and the first level. A three-story atrium provides a visual connection to the publicly accessible Levels Three and Four. Based on a 500-year flood plain, the first floor is raised above the flood level and extensive waterproofing is in place for the basement.

Along with the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences on Level Three are accommodations for a pedestrian skybridge to the future Baylor Research Building, and a 200-seat auditorium. A/V equipment in the auditorium includes LCD projectors, three 60-inch LCD display screens, TV cameras, and a 16-foot projection screen. Capable of providing distance teaching, all A/V systems and lighting can be controlled from the speaker's podium. Level four contains two conference rooms, building maintenance, facilities and housekeeping offices, freezer morgues, and department storage cases. A fourth floor bridge connects the Mitchell BSRB to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Six research lab floors start with the fifth level. The endcaps of each interstitial floor are outside the laboratory footprint and can be used for additional office or meeting space. The endcaps of each laboratory floor contain office space, conference rooms, and break areas.

The laboratories are designed around common equipment space and specialized research programs located in the center of each lab floor. The open laboratory areas are designed generically to allow for different lab configurations without requiring major reconstruction.

The laboratory modules are sized 11' x 30', and each lab floor contains 45 modules. Two outer blocks of 15 modules each are used primarily for basic research. The third, 15-module block is in the center of the floor and houses lab support functions. Each module can be divided into smaller components to support specialized functions that require an enclosed or separated space from the main lab. One-third of the lab benches are moveable and contain a custom mobile instrument rack. Utilities include lab air, gas, vacuum, and central CO₂. A liquid nitrogen filling station is provided in the building.

Each floor contains four radioisotope hoods, four chemical fume hoods and environmental rooms. Additional equipment includes an x-ray generator room, an institutional tissue bank, x-omats (darkroom processors), a drosophila center (fly vivaria), and a freezer farm. A frog room and sea urchin vivaria are on Level Eight. A 2,000-sf core imaging facility supports virtually every imaging modality that exists for research purposes, including Micro CT, Micro PET, Micro-MR, optical, and ultrasound imaging. The imaging facility includes two separate animal preparation/procedure rooms, one dedicated to basement-housed animals and the other to first floor-housed animals.

The modular laboratory design, redundant mechanical and utility systems, and the strategic location of casual interaction areas on each floor support the inherent flexibility designed into the Mitchell BSRB so scientists can keep pace with the rapid changes occurring in their respective fields of research.

Project Information
Building Owner:		University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Building Location:		Houston, Texas UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Cancer research
Project Delivery Method:		Construction Management
Project Timeline		Oct 1998 Planning Start Apr 1999 Design Start Aug 2000 Construction Start Nov 2005 Completion Last known status: Completed
Project Cost:		$221,900,000
Construction Cost:		$175,456,308
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$324
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Aquarium Atrium Biology Education: Biology Genomics Healthcare: Cancer Center Healthcare: Imaging Laboratory Laboratory: Dry And Wet Laboratory: Research Research Vivarium
Total GSF:		485,740
Building Population:		3812
Project Team
Architect		FKP Architects
Architect - Associate		Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP
Builder		Gilbane Building Company
Consultant - Life Support Systems		Rolf Jensen & Associates
Engineer - MEP		Affiliated Engineers Inc. (AEI)
Supplier - Animal Enclosures		Tecniplast USA
Supplier - Biosafety Cabinets		NUAIRE Inc.
Supplier - Flooring		Armstrong World Industries
Profile Created 03/01/2006
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.