"We were operating in it on day one, which I think is a testament to the way that the building came together," says Ralph Durand, associate vice president for research for the BC Cancer Agency. "We are thrilled with our new building."

The 231,000-sf centre provides for the full spectrum of scientific research, largely in BSL-2 facilities with two specialized BSL-3 areas. Labs include advanced therapeutics, cancer control research, cancer endocrinology, cancer genetics and developmental biology, cancer imaging, a genome sciences center, medical biophysics, molecular oncology, the Terry Fox laboratory, and a transgenic facility in the 20,000-sf vivarium. The building contains 65 fume hoods, 140 bio-safety cabinets, and 600 pieces of specialized equipment.

"There's nothing in the laboratory design that we needed and isn't there, or that doesn't work," says Durand.

Interstitial Space Proves Crucial

The new BC Cancer Research Centre is really two buildings in one: An office complex with an adjacent research complex, housing 60 principal investigators and 600 research/support staff. The unusual split design came about as an efficient solution to a constrained site and a tight budget.

The lab side of the building contains six stories separated by interstitial floors. The stories measure 22 feet from floor to floor; they would have been 16 feet high without the interstitial space. This extra height allows for twice the amount of office space next door, with two floors of offices for each floor of labs.

"It's more economical to build the compressed office space," says David Thom, managing director of IBI Group, which designed the facility in a joint venture with Henriquez Partners Architects. "If we'd designed the offices within the labs, we would have ended up with very expensive office space taking up too much space."

One-third of the funding came from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which will fund only research space. That funding was matched by the BC Government's Knowledge Development Fund, with the rest coming from donations to the BC Cancer Foundation. It would have been very difficult to separate the cost of the office space from the cost of the research labs if the spaces had been co-mingled.

The design raised some eyebrows at first, says Durand.

"Everyone would rather have the offices embedded in the labs," says Durand. "But given the functionality that we have achieved within the structure, and given how well this building works, the scientists and occupants will largely tell you that this really was a minimal compromise."

The interstitial floors provided a cleaner construction process, as well, says Thom.

"Because all the mechanical systems are contained in the interstitial space, the mechanical people could be working at the same time as the finishing guys in the labs," he says. "No one had to wait for the other to finish before they started, and they weren'tt tripping over each other."

That separation between mechanical systems and the labs they serve also contributes to the flexibility of the lab configurations, a critical feature of their design.

"The floor is concrete, and the ceiling is metal decking," explains Thom. "The plumbing and electrical and electronic cabling are all in the ceiling, which enables you to make all primary changes in that space without disrupting the research."

That allowed researchers to move in and begin working in their labs before the work on those systems was completed.

In addition, most labs contain identical modules with no walls between them, and are outfitted with moveable furniture; only the benches are fixed. The labs don't even contain interior walls, but instead open to ghost corridors.

"We didn't assign lab space until well along in the building process so the scientific community couldn't start customizing the labs," says Thom.

Building Community Connections

From its inception, the BC Cancer Research Centre has been an integral part of the community: One-third of the project cost came through donations to the BC Cancer Foundation from private-sector fundraising, which is unusual in Canada, says Thom. So it was important that the building give something back to the community in return. One way to do that was create a building that was indicative of the work being done inside and visually pleasing, despite its large scale in a small city.

"This is an elegant design for a big box in the middle of the city," says Thom.

For example, the lab side of the building contains 68 circular, 15-foot-diameter windows which represent the petri dishes that have long been a staple of scientific research. The office side is colorfully paneled in a repeating pattern that mimics the banding pattern of the sixth human chromosome. And the 12-story spiral staircase, visible through an exterior glass column, represents the DNA spiral.

A 2,900-sf, ground-floor library serves more as a resource for patients and the community than for the scientists, who tend to do their literature searches electronically.

One whole wall contains brochures written in laymen's terms for cancer patients and their families to learn more about the disease and treatments. The library also contains stacks with more technical materials, teaching videos, and computer terminals that are available for the public to search for information on line.

Lessons Learned

As with any large construction project, the BC Cancer Research Centre hit some snags along the way, all of which Durand attributes to a lack of communication caused by not having the right people at the table at the right time, or by not making sure the participants understand each other properly. Knowing just who to consult became more confusing as the process went on, as more entities became major stakeholders in the project.

The user/client is the BC Cancer Agency, a major cancer care and research organization on a par with the Mayo Clinic or Massachusetts General Hospital. The treatment component is supported by the government of British Columbia, with research funding coming from the BC Cancer Foundation and a variety of other organizations. The owner of the building is the BC Cancer Foundation, a charitable organization that raises funds to support the work of the Agency. Partway through the process, the British Columbia government created the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) whose mandate includes oversight of the BC Cancer Agency. It leased the building from the BC Cancer Foundation when the building was completed in December 2004.

"The PHSA came into existence in December 2001 and became a partner in the project," says Durand. "This meant there were more people at the table, with varying degrees of history on the project."

The best communication involved lab planning. The Cancer Research Centre contains 65 percent laboratory and vivarium space, and "we spent an awful lot of time working on that component of the building," says Durand. As a result, the scientific side of the building is nearly flawless, but some of the more pedestrian details are causing headaches for the users.

The parking garage, for example, is a critical element in a high-tech facility when sandwiched between the vivarium below and the research floors above. Although the research centre garage was built in accordance with Vancouver by-laws, it includes tight turning radiuses that have resulted in damage to many cars. The problem was alleviated by cutting through a 12-inch concrete barrier with a diamond saw to reduce its size.

Another issue that has since been resolved was the positioning of security personnel at the reception desk on the main floor.

"It was a good design concept in the beginning," says Durand "but it breaks apart when you consider that we are part of a cancer agency. The main floor is the only accessible floor for patients. They need a receptionist, not a security guard. We are using a receptionist most of the time with security in the off hours."

The security monitors have been rerouted to the basement command center.

In some cases, a combination of "value engineering" and a lack of communication conspired to create untenable results.

A spectacular 220-seat auditorium was rendered almost unusable by the lack of soundproofing around the audio-visual equipment, and the installation of a projection screen too high above the podium.

"The auditorium was initially designed with the idea that everything is a lecture and not interactive. For us in the scientific and medical fields, exactly the opposite is true," explains Durand.

"We are going to install a single large screen that will be used for showing photos, x-rays, things with subtle detail," he says.

"A bigger problem is that through a course of value engineering, the soundproof cabinets for the projection systems were engineered out," says Durand. "We ended up with a little cabinet hanging onto the wall that vibrates very nicely. It is an acoustic reflector to focus the sound back into the building. We have had a couple of trial teleconferences and video conferences, and people have asked us whether we are sitting in the middle of a wind tunnel or Grand Central Station."

Furniture procurement was delayed due to not fully appreciating staff numbers or locations.

"The common office areas are what I would characterize as a bit of a recurring regret," says Durand. "Our design and our procurement of furniture really didn't go hand in hand. It may or may not have matched the existing space as well as it should.

"These minor annoyances became major ones because the rest of the building works so well," says Durand. "But to add perspective, the laboratory area was our major concern, and we got it as close to right as we possibly could have."

By Lisa Wesel