The Center's primary goals are to develop genomics research programs that require collaboration across traditional departmental boundaries, to provide the Harvard research community access to cutting-edge genomics proteomics technologies, and to perform important genomics research.

"The sharing of space and equipment by researchers facilitates interaction that leads to an enhanced interchange of ideas," says George Busby, director of administration for the Center.

The Bauer Center for Genomic Research (CGR) represents the first initiative in a new multi-disciplinary approach to science launched by Harvard in 1999. As space is extremely limited on the Cambridge campus, University leaders decided to demolish the 11,000-sf Gibbs Laboratory, no longer a viable research facility, and construct the 62,000-sf, five-story Bauer Laboratory. Restricted by the University's desire to maintain open spaces, the Laboratory is limited to an above-ground footprint that is only slightly larger than the previous structure.

The 14-month design process began in April 1999 with construction getting under way in the fall of 2000. The $26-million Bauer Center, designed to house approximately 90 permanent staff members, also accommodates an additional 30 to 50 researchers from other University schools and departments who receive training or utilize the equipment on a daily basis. The Center is designed to be easily and inexpensively adaptable to meet the ever-changing and diverse needs of a growing number of research Fellows. The upper floors of the building were occupied in March 2002, and the basement areas were ready for occupancy in September.

Making the Most of Available Space

Designers from Ellenzweig Associates in Cambridge, Mass., took into consideration the small above-ground footprint on which they had to build the facility. All available underground space was used to build a 30,000-sf basement, which features core support and mechanical systems, bulk storage spaces, shipping and receiving areas, labs, offices, and specialized instrument rooms. The basement is constrained on the north and east by major utility tunnels and on all sides by other buildings.

"We were able to get the maximum value from this space by physically connecting it to both the chemistry and molecular biology buildings with a series of corridors," says Busby. "In the occupied office areas of the basement, which is used primarily for computational biology, we added skylights to bring in the maximum amount of natural light."

On the upper floors, glass interior walls allow natural light to enter the work areas and create an open, transparent environment that is conducive to interaction and discussion among researchers. A skylight on the third floor projects down the stairwell, which is also surrounded by glass to obtain an increased amount of natural lighting.

Making the most efficient use of the available square footage meant placing all of the instrument and wet labs in the center of each floor and locating the offices along the exterior walls. Write-up areas and desks for the research staff are typically located along the north perimeter, while offices for the CGR Fellows are along the south perimeter. Other necessary support lab space such as warm rooms, cold rooms, tissue culture rooms, freezer rooms, dark rooms, and instrument rooms are placed along a shared wall with an adjoining building and are readily accessible from the laboratory.

Adaptable Labs for Tomorrow's Needs

"Genomics is a rapidly changing field that requires expertise from many disciplines to solve difficult and complex problems. The Fellows are a diverse group of scientists who stay at the Center for only three to five years. The University administration does not want to pay for lab renovation and construction every time a new Fellow with a new research program joins the Center" explains Busby. "Therefore, flexibility in the laboratory areas is an absolute necessity."

The laboratories are designed with movable tables and wet lab benches that can be easily and inexpensively moved on an as-needed basis throughout the Center. Casework is provided in two-foot-wide modular units with lockable casters, and adjustable or removable shelves. Space beneath the tables and benches is flexible to accommodate the individual needs of each researcher.

Utilities are fed from overhead service modules, which provide electricity, data connectivity, gas, air, nitrogen, vacuum, cold water, and deionized water. Services accessed frequently are mounted to a removable shelf and are readily available on the bench. The electrical outlets at the modules have twist lock connections and all other utilities have quick lock disconnects.

"Another special feature is that the wet labs and instrument labs are totally interchangeable. We've provided the same infrastructure, the same distribution of overhead service modules, and the same distribution of floor drains," says Busby.

Floor drains with cover plates, which can easily be exchanged for drain grates, are located below each of the overhead utility service modules.

Environment Encourages Interaction

University leaders wanted a building where researchers could easily interact with each other and share ideas. The entire facility is built around the goal of maximizing interaction. Designers met this objective by first including a café and lobby area on the ground floor. The west side of the café boasts another gathering area with soft seating. Tables with umbrellas are outside the café for those who want to enjoy their meal outdoors on a warm day.

All four levels of the Center feature a tea, or seminar, room, which includes an LCD projector, an overhead projector, and laptop hookups. Each floor also includes a 140-sf interaction room that can be used for small seminars, group meetings, research discussions, interviews, or conference calls. The interaction areas also contain a telephone, data connectivity, and wireless Internet.

Another factor that has promoted interactions is the high density of researchers. In most traditional laboratories, research groups are segregated with each group having its own benches, its own instruments, and its own set of contiguous offices or desks. In the Bauer Lab all the instruments are shared and the desks in the write up area are filled as people arrive, not according to which research group they belong. On the upper floors, each researcher has approximately 117 sf of lab space. This forces individuals to share space and resources, and potentially leads to the sharing of research ideas. The interior glass walls on each floor make it easy to find people and to see what is happening on the floor.

"One thing leads to another and pretty soon the researchers know what's going on in each other's group," says Busby.

The core resources play a major role in facilitating interaction, and these unique facilities attract many different research groups to the Center. Core technologies include microarray, bioinformatics/computational biology, robotics, high-throughput screening, and mass spectroscopy.

"We're presently providing training, access to our resources, and collaboration to more than 200 different research groups at Harvard University," adds Busby.

Accessibility to the Harvard Research Community

Busby stresses the importance of making the Bauer Center accessible and functional for the entire University research community. The location of the building in the center of the science departments and its physical connection to both the chemistry and molecular biology buildings has made it convenient for researchersto access the Center.

The core technologies attract many researchers from Harvard's Medical School, the School of Public Health, and Harvard-affiliated hospitals. The Center staff trains individuals how to use the various CGR instruments and technologies. When the Center staff determines that a user is qualified to use the equipment, facilities are then made available on a 24-hour basis. Identification card readers are located on the doors to each lab and instrument room.

"We're able to program access to specific spaces for certain periods of time for individuals," says Busby. "All of our instrumentation can be scheduled over the Web with each instrument having its own set of protocols for scheduling."

The Center maintains computer control of both the activation and operation of every instrument. An identification name and password are given only to those qualified to run the instruments and to prevent unauthorized individuals from using instruments that can cost as much as $400,000.

Visitors can also enjoy the amenities of the tea rooms, interaction areas, the public access computers on each floor, wireless Internet email capabilities, the café, and the lobby which includes plasma screens that show biological visualizations, seminar notices, and other important information.

Special Infrastructure Features

The building has a number of unique infrastructure features, including an oversized HVAC system that currently supports seven fume hoods with the capability of supporting up to 60. The building's utilities are constructed identically to those in the adjoining chemistry building, and are connected to them enabling redundancy and convenient backup for both buildings in the event of a mechanical failure or scheduled preventive maintenance.

A large emergency generator located in the basement of the Bauer Laboratory is capable of supplying power to the entire complex of chemistry buildings.

The shipping and receiving operations for five departments are now consolidated into a single operation, allowing an area previously occupied by five loading docks, up to 12 trash dumpsters, and a few parking spaces to be converted into a beautiful courtyard that is enjoyed by researchers and Center visitors.

Lessons Worth Reporting

The key lesson learned by Harvard planners is the importance of flexibility when constructing an interdisciplinary science center. Several CGR Fellows have received research grants and have increased their staffs. In order to accommodate the growth, the University is installing additional wet bench space in what had previously been instrument space.

As for the future, Busby would like to see more storage areas at the individual benches, more removable shelves at the wet benches, and more spaces for interaction.

"When the environment is conducive to interaction, researchers become interested in looking beyond their own work," says Busby.

By Tracy Carbasho