Ranking high on the list of recipients of National Institutes of Health funding, YSM is also employing the model as an ongoing tool to determine feasible grant cost recoveries for both the Anlyan Center and other recently refurbished buildings.

"The high cost of building and maintaining new laboratory facilities is causing us to evaluate the use of these facilities in a more businesslike manner," says John Bollier, Yale associate vice president for facilities operations.

From Underpinnings to Guidelines

In light of the hefty price tag attached to YSM's current academic research facilities™$386 per gsf for new construction, $537 per gsf for remodeling™underutilized lab space is an unaffordable luxury. The model streamlines space allocation through its four underpinnings: the unit of measure, the ratio of laboratory support space to pure laboratory space, the average lab group size, and the ratio of principal investigators (PIs) to administrative support.

Fleshed out with data accumulated over several years, these underpinnings developed into the following guidelines:

• the unit of measure is a workstation consisting of a four-foot carrel and six linear feet of high bench space;
• the ratio of lab support to pure lab is 0.5 to 1;
• the average lab group consists of six people;
• the PI to administrative support ratio is 2 to 1.

"With these four elements, we can really define a floorplate," says Bollier.

Underlying Assumptions

Elaborating on the assumptions behind the guidelines, Bollier explains that the unit of measure has evolved into an academic standard at YSM.

"We've been doing generic designs for the previous seven years," he says. "The carrel-benchspace configuration works for most of the research on campus."

The lab support ratio is the product of the school's own experience, supplemented by consultation with other institutions, including Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which is involved in a significant amount of research facility construction across the U.S. Originally pegged at 35 percent in older lab buildings, the YSM ratio has grown over time to accommodate increased needs for research equipment and to provide greater flexibility. While the 50 percent figure represents a slight increase over the current space census, Bollier reports that an even larger ratio would have been helpful.

"More support space, in the range of 60 to 65 percent, would have been an easier fit as we tried to move people into the Anlyan Center," he says.

As for average lab group size, Bollier observes that with only a handful of "large labs" of 35 people, YSM is unlike other universities he has visited, where a single PI and associates might occupy an entire building floor.

"The School of Medicine is basically made up of many relatively small lab groups," he comments, with some groups consisting of as few as two people. "We don't see this changing any time soon."

Not only do the smaller lab groups produce more vibrant interaction, he says, but they make for a robust environment that seems to help attract new researchers. The diversity also lessens the school's dependence on the research dollars brought in by any individual PI.

The formula of two PIs to one administrative support person, although based on statistics from other departments, has turned out to be an overestimate.

"I think it is a reflection of the economics of the times," says Bollier. "We tend to have one support person per three PIs, and utilize the extra space in some other way."

Anlyan Lab Layout

Encompassing 22,775 nsf, each of the six floors of the Anlyan Center's lab wing offers 10,979 nsf of lab, 5,008 nsf of lab support, 2,799 nsf of office, and 3,989 nsf of other space, such as breakout areas and conference rooms.

Applying the model to each floor produces a generic layout with wet bench space stretching along one perimeter and PI offices on the other. The floor's 116 workstations are spread out among six lab modules, three with a 21-person capacity, two holding 12, and one accommodating 29. Every lab module has a tissue culture space, fume hood alcove, an adjoining support room, and an equipment bay providing access to the central core and cross corridors.

On the opposite side of the wing are 19 PI offices and four two-person support pods.

A pedestrian corridor separates the office zone from the support core running down the central spine of the wing. This area holds specialized spaces for complex equipment such as confocal microscopes, shared by multiple researchers because they are generally too expensive for an individual lab to own. A major wash center has also been designed into each level, but in retrospect Bollier thinks there could have been fewer of these spaces without adversely affecting the level of service.

Each floor also features five different points of vertical circulation. Three sets of stairs are enclosed, and two are open, affording increased opportunity for visual contact among researchers.

"Vertical circulation is important because this is such a long building," remarks Bollier. "The stairways allow the assignment of space to be vertical, not just horizontal. Space assignments were not made until three to four months before move-in, and being able to maneuver in both dimensions was very helpful as we implemented occupancy."

Backfill Space Follows Model

The space planning model has also driven the redesign and renovation of other YSM research facilities, with minor changes.

"Using the model in existing labs is not a 'pure' science," says Bollier. "Sometimes we had to squint and sketch to add a desk or a benchtop, but we have now applied the model to the whole medical school campus."

While adhering to the same ratios in the aggregate, the resulting lab layouts and support configurations are slightly different from those in the Anlyan Center due to limitations inherent in the original buildings.

For example, in the Sterling Hall of Medicine C-Wing, a lateral corridor divides the floorplate in two, so support space is not contiguous to the lab blocks, which is seen as a minor drawback.

"These labs are viewed as slightly less efficient than the Anlyan Center labs, and yet they are still very competitive when it comes to recruiting," notes Bollier.

Maximizing Return on Space

Along with its role providing layout guidelines, the space planning model now serves as a tool to evaluate ongoing occupancy levels in YSM facilities, a vital process for responsible stewardship of the institution's resources.

While occupancy models have long been in force in the corporate environment, maximizing space utilization is a relatively new issue for the medical school, where the desired result is creative research. The goal is not so much to hold every single PI to a rigid space standard, but to assure a high utilization rate across the overall portfolio, Bollier notes.

"People usually ask for more space than they can justify," he says. "We want to match actual need to capability. It doesn't benefit the school to have a mismatch."

The facilities department and the budget office worked closely to correlate existing occupancy and predicted capacity with overall grant revenue. Yale's investment in an Oracle database was instrumental in their data gathering.

"As part of this process, there has been a great deal of rigor getting the space database to work with the HR database and the general ledger for grant activity," says Bollier. "The quality of the data yielded by the model leads to a higher, more informed level of discussion between the Dean's office and the departments while allowing the school to be more strategic in its recruitment and retention."

By Nicole Zaro Stahl