Large or fixed devices such as fume hoods, sinks, dishwashers, and refrigerators are located along the perimeter, creating a spacious dance floor in the middle of the 5,343-sf lab. The benchtops and other furniture that occupy this open area are modular and mobile rather than fixed and floor-mounted. Services are distributed through an overhead configuration of wings and turrets, making it easy to move high-tech gear around.

"We've already seen many combinations of furniture and equipment inside the lab space," says Paul Planz, manager of Project Engineering for Bayer. "We will probably see additional arrangements as our equipment needs continue to evolve."

Driving Forces

Converted from an old manufacturing building, Building 36 was constructed on an aggressive schedule, going from design to occupancy in 12 months. The existing structure was gutted down to the steel to produce a single-story building with a floor-to-floor height of 18' 6". Lab and lab support space— includes a cold room, a 3,200-sf robotics area, and a small area for waste treatment— for approximately 70 percent of the floorplate. A glass "viewing wall" separates the lab from the 2,932-sf office area on the south side of the building.

Two key factors drove the building design. One was the number of alliances (approximately 30 in all) Bayer has forged over the past few years with other companies, including CuraGen Corp. of New Haven, Conn.; Millennium Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass.; and Lion Bioscience of Heidelberg, Germany and Cambridge, Mass. The other factor was a significant increase in the number of drug-development candidates.

"Bayer projects that most of these new candidates will be coming out of genomic-based research," says Planz. "How are we going to do that? Technology."

In fact, equipment expenditures far exceed the cost of the new facility. Building 36's price tag was $4 million, but its occupants will be spending more than the building cost on equipment over the next five years, as well as investing significantly in large-scale screening equipment.

"In Building 36, we're adding equipment to every square foot of space we can," says Planz.

To accommodate the extra equipment, aisles have been reduced from five feet to three feet in width and movable furniture has been placed along the lab perimeter (normally reserved for fixed equipment).

"The main thing we learned with Building 36 is: think linear equivalent feet for equipment, don't think people," says Planz, adding, "In a technology-driven building like this one, people don't have to be inside the lab."

People Spaces

People space is entirely separated from lab space in Building 36. Fewer than 26 of the facility's 39 occupants ever enter the lab. Those who do set up their equipment in the morning and return to the lab at the end of the day to mine the data and prepare for the next run.

Ph.D. offices are approximately 100 sf and are located at the perimeter of the office area, while the workspaces for associates are grouped in an open "corral" that provides approximately 40 sf per associate. Previously, associates had workspaces in the lab with roughly three linear feet per person.

"It wasn't really too hard to impress them with six linear feet of space they could actually call their own," says Planz. "The only complaint we have heard of the corral is that it is a little bit too noisy for them as they talk on the phone. So we are going to put some white noise into the ceiling of the office space."

Seeing Daylight

To provide adequate daylighting, the perimeter of Building 36 features what Planz calls a "window wall." In the lab, the window starts seven feet above the floor (leaving ample wall space for the fixed equipment that occupies the outer edge of the lab area) and extends to a height of approximately 12 feet. The office area receives abundant natural light from a similar window arrangement.

A stainless steel sunscreen was added to the exterior along the south and west walls, both to soften the building's boxy appearance and to provide shade. Even with the screen, however, the light level proved to be too high for the offices on the west side of the building housing computer-intensive bioinformatics research. In this area, shades have been installed to reduce glare on monitors.

Viewing Wall

To showcase the facility's technology to investors and other interested parties, Building 36 has a glass viewing wall separating the lab and office areas. The wall allows visitors to observe the lab area without actually entering it.

Constructed of tempered glass for protection, the viewing wall is flush with the deck above at the top and gasketed around the sides like an exterior wall to prevent cross contamination between the office and lab spaces. With multiple exits throughout the building, it did not require a fire rating.

Movable Carts, Benches, Tables

Along with making the lab space flexible, Bayer also wanted the ability to reconfigure it quickly— less than eight hours.

"We wanted our research people to be able to take equipment on skids, set it up on the benchtop, and put it into operation without maintenance going in to help them," says Planz.

Facilitating this kind of quick-change reconfiguration is a dance floor full of modular and mobile furniture. Movable carts and benches make it easy for scientists to add a new piece of equipment or make adjustments at the back of existing devices. Depending on the complexity, rewiring is performed with the assistance of an equipment supplier working in the lab as the cart is reconfigured.

The benchtops adjust vertically from 2.5 feet above the floor, up to approximately five feet. Researchers can lower the benchtop to load equipment or work on top of the equipment if they choose. Carts and benches are also available in a variety of widths.

"We can change from a four-foot cart to a six- or eight-foot cart, make it an L-shape, or put a 1,000-pound piece of equipment on it if we need to," says Planz. "I've seen entire carts moved to the back room if the equipment is no longer needed. A new cart gets pulled out and loaded with a different series of equipment."

One of the few problems to arise with the movable carts, according to Planz, was that the original casters weren't sufficiently solid and had to be changed.

"The good news was that the adjustable benchtop made changing the casters relatively simple," he says. "We put another benchtop underneath, jacked it up and lifted it off the floor, replaced the casters, then repositioned the cart, all with no inconvenience to the lab group."

Planz adds that Bayer is currently working with a prototype that will provide a locking mechanism for the carts.

"We will be able to lower the wheels, move the cart, and jack the wheels back up. The cart will then be on a solid surface," he says. "That's important, because the scientists have a tendency to shake the tables a little bit, and if those casters have any movement at all that table sees it."

Building 36's lab space also houses one- and two-meter tables for large robotic equipment. Like the carts, these are moved frequently; in fact, Planz estimates that they have been rearranged approximately once a month since October 2000. Unlike the carts, however, the tables must sit flat on the floor because of the loads they bear. Their mobility comes from retractable wheels, which allow them to be rolled around with relative ease. To fix the tables at a new location, the wheels are simply raised and locked so the legs make a hard connection with the floor.

Overhead Distribution

The movable carts, benches, and tables are serviced either by turrets or wings, which provide overhead connections to RO water, nitrogen, air, vacuum and power (110, 208, 230 and 480 V), voice and data— needed to support a piece of equipment.

The turrets are 12-inch-square columns that descend five feet from the ceiling. Utility connections are available at a height of seven feet from the floor.

"This sounded like a good height during the planning stage," says Planz. "The problem is, you need a ladder to unplug all the equipment."

For future projects, Bayer is looking into a type of retractable turret commonly found in hospitals. These devices can be lowered within five to six feet of the floor, then retracted back to the ceiling height when not in use.

In contrast to the vertical orientation of the turrets, the wings stretch horizontally over the section of the lab housing robotics tables. The wings are delivered pre-piped and require no assembly in the lab. A plate on the side of the wing opens to provide access to gases and electricity. Planz notes that Bayer has the option of adding lighting, snorkels, or water hook-ups to the wings in the future.

Positive Response

Researchers working in Building 36 have responded favorably to the new lab configuration.

"All of our scientists are telling us they like the open lab space," says Planz. "They also like the idea that scientists are all together, rather than being spread out around the lab and office areas. They tell us communication has improved multifold from their previous location. The associates are also talking more among themselves. We are seeing a wonderful increase in collaboration."

Another sure sign of success is that many of Building 36's innovative features— lab space with mobile furniture for rapid reconfiguration, overhead distribution, etc.— are being incorporated into a similar equipment-intensive research building Bayer currently has on the drawing board.

Recently, Building 36 was named 2002 Renovated Lab of the Year by R&D Magazine.

By Lee Ingalls