“There were 30 years of solitude between the two buildings,” says Michel Tremblay, director of the McGill Cancer Centre. “There were no passageways between the buildings and several stairways making it difficult to wheel equipment between the two.”

The complex consists of the McIntyre Building, the Stewart Building, and two new facilities, the Bellini Pavilion and the Cancer Pavilion, which will house the McGill Cancer Centre that is now located elsewhere on campus. Upon completion, there will be a continuum between the four buildings, facilitating collaboration among the multiple disciplines. Construction of both pavilions began in March 2006 with an expected completion date of April 2008 and occupancy beginning two months later. The cost to construct the two pavilions and to make improvements to the McIntyre and Stewart Buildings is estimated to be approximately $53 million (CAD).

Construction of the Bellini and the Cancer pavilions represents one of the largest projects ever undertaken at the University. The additional space will promote interdisciplinary research and provide scientists with the most advanced equipment to help them better understand diseases and to work towards finding cures. The new buildings will also add modern laboratories to the campus where such space is currently at a premium.

The pavilions will link the facilities housed in the McIntyre and Stewart buildings, which comprise a total of about 150,000 sf, while providing an additional 180,000 sf of modern research and infrastructure space. Integrating the MULSRC with the Cancer Pavilion and the Bellini Pavilion will eliminate the physical separation of researchers in related fields throughout the campus, and help the MULSRC remain at the forefront of biomedical research. More than $26 million is already allocated for the purchase of equipment and the operation of innovative core facilities, including a modern transgenic mouse facility, as well as chemical biology and imaging facilities.

Researchers at the MULSRC will have the necessary working environment to move from molecule discovery to drug delivery, taking their science from the bench to the bedside. Research projects at the complex will focus on five biomedical fields, including cancer, genetics of complex traits, cell information systems, chemical biology, and developmental and reproductive biology.

Location and Scientific Needs Impact Design

The location of the complex between Mont-Royal Park and downtown Montreal presented architectural challenges. The goal of constructing the new buildings is to link the scientists of the Medical School and the researchers in the biology and life sciences departments. The site is in close proximity to historical buildings, such as the Meredith Estate, designed by famed architect Frederick Olmsted. As a result of the location, the height of the buildings must be limited and the amount of green space must be sufficient.

Approximately 15 stately homes are also located near the complex and, therefore, the site is a highly sensitive issue for local residents who view Mont-Royal as a serene place for their families to enjoy.

“It was extremely important to protect this environment. The Quebec government recently identified the Mont-Royal Park as a patrimony space for the province,” notes Tremblay. “You cannot build around Mont-Royal unless you follow several guidelines and pass many reviews. This is the most photographed site in Montreal and for an architect it is a big challenge and for the University that is looking for a donor, it presents a big advantage.”

The complex is designed to enable the pursuit of outstanding biomedical sciences in a modern, competitive, and sustainable environment. The scientific needs of the users also impacted the design, which is geared toward bringing together the two major life sciences buildings on campus, the Stewart and McIntyre buildings.

“We want to bring together about 90 principal investigators who are scattered around the campus,” says Tremblay. “Our objective is to bring them to a complex where we can create a critical mass of people, develop new scientific projects in proteomics, metabolomics, and genetics as part of our interdisciplinary research and the establishment of core facilities. Core facilities are expensive and very quickly obsolete, so they must be used by the largest number of researchers. If not, they should be upgraded with new technologies that always remain at the cutting edge of scientific research.”

The design takes into consideration the desire to maintain an entrance to Pine Avenue, a street that extends along the beautiful Mont-Royal where families and public may use it for both work and leisure. Having an entrance on Pine Avenue also facilitates interaction with nearby medical facilities, the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Montreal General Hospital.

Achieving such an appropriate environment for researchers requires obtaining the necessary funding to construct and properly equip the pavilions. Dr. Francesco Bellini donated $10 million, while the Quebec government and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation each contributed $20 million for a total of $50 million. McGill University has also committed to provide $10 million and the Quebec government made a second contribution of $14 million to the Cancer Pavilion, providing sufficient funds to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and to install the most suitable infrastructure.

Research Functions

The layout of the four-building complex features the McIntyre medical facility behind the Cancer Pavilion with the Stewart Building situated alongside the Cancer Pavilion and the Bellini Pavilion located in the foreground. The McIntyre facility will be linked to the Cancer Pavilion via a connection on the seventh floor. The Cancer Pavilion will include three research floors for scientists working in the areas of stem cells, breast cancer, and mammalian developmental research. A vivarium will occupy two floors in the pavilion.

“More than 50 percent of the top scientific papers written by the faculty of medicine at McGill relates to animal models of human diseases,” says Tremblay. “Our scientists are researching and trying to create new treatments for breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, obesity, and other ailments.”

The Bellini Pavilion will feature four research floors with cell system studies taking place on the first level, while the second floor is for small organism developmental models, the third is for understanding the genetics of complex diseases, and the fourth is dedicated to chemical biology.

Top-notch scientists will be recruited to work in both pavilions and will be grouped in accordance to related research niches. High-quality researchers currently working in the McIntyre and Stewart buildings, as well as the McGill Cancer Centre, will be moved to the new facilities where they will have access to better equipment and infrastructure.

Core facilities are critical to providing an efficient infrastructure support by which scientists can share equipment and expertise. The core facilities that are now spread throughout buildings on campus will be more centrally located in the four buildings of the complex. Core equipment zones are flexible, allow for a higher structural loading capacity, and are serviced electrically and mechanically to facilitate rapid reconfiguration with minimum disruption to operations as emerging technologies are implemented.

The core facilities focus on scientific information technology, nanotools, micro fabrication, Quebec/Eastern Canada’s high-field NMR facility, cloning and expression facility, hybridoma, high-throughput sequencing/genotyping, developmental histology, transgenic research, imaging, cell imaging and analysis network, flow cytometry, high-throughput/content screening, and mass spectrometry.

“The core facilities cannot be permanent because science is always changing,” says Tremblay. “The complex allows us to replace the core facilities in different sites in the complex and improve their quality and their service to the scientists and the community. We got the community involved early in the process because we want people to know the core facilities are available. The core facilities are sustained with fee-for-service charges to ensure quality services.”

The Need to Be Self-Sustaining

Tremblay stresses the importance of not relying solely on the government for funding. Money generated from the core facilities is one example of how the complex will support itself. The complex must be as diversified as any company that is supported by customers in order to be sustainable.

Another way to generate revenue is recruiting excellent scientists who are capable of securing grants. All of the scientists working in the cancer center are funded by many national and international agencies, for example. They generate $15 million in annual peer review funding. NIH and external funding brings in more than $2 million to fund operations. McGill University has also established an endowment that has collected more than $1 million to date and has established non-departmental units that can secure their own funding.

“An important paradigm in Canadian research is moving towards justifying our investment through translational research,” says Tremblay. “Even the population that has donated to cancer research for 20 to 25 years is now expecting some delivery. This is why we need to push for multidisciplinary interactions between scientists and clinicians and translate these discoveries towards bedside application.”

The University has identified space for potential naming opportunities. The spectacular location of the complex and the reputation of its scientific research are enticements for donors to offer money in return for having a floor or other area named in their honor. Tremblay expects this naming opportunity to bring in more than $20 million to fund operation of the complex. Each of the research floors of the Cancer Pavilion are available to be named in exchange for monetary contributions of at least $2 million. Other areas available for naming rights at $100,000 each are five core facilities, three conference rooms, one open space, and one prominent lobby entrance on Pine Avenue.

There is also one translation laboratory that will be available in partnership with a hospital or corporation, but the naming details are not finalized. Discussions are also under way about possibly naming the different groups, such as the Chemical Biology Centre or the Cystic Fibrosis Research Centre. The McGill Cancer Centre, in particular, has been a recurring recipient of government funds for more than two decades and can readily attract grant money.

“If there is a name and an infrastructure for the various floors or groups, they will be in a much better position to get team grants and group grants that are now increasing much more rapidly than the single investigator operating grants. This is an important aspect of sustainability.”

In order for a project such as the McGill University Life Science Research Complex to be successful, it is imperative to understand that funding mechanisms must be diverse with money coming from a variety of sources. It is equally important to involve all key stakeholders at the beginning of the project, to pay attention to sustainable design, to recruit and retain scientific experts, and to include originality in the architecture.

“You must commit to a project with a dynamic vision and build it rapidly,” says Tremblay.

By Tracy Carbasho

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