The project has a long history going back to 2000 when the University decided to close its Gross Chemistry Building, which had been built in the 1960s. Having top-notch science facilities is critical for a University that is well-known for its pre-med undergraduate education and research programs. Today, Duke serves approximately 14,000 undergraduate and professional students, has 30,551 employees, and 2,664 faculty members.

“The French Family Science Center is a process story and also a success story,” says John Pearce, University architect. “It’s a wonderful story of a successful building that has really served our community and is already being used to recruit faculty and students.”

Construction of the multidisciplinary, green science building was the culmination of seven years of pursuing goals that focus on the program, framework plan, and sustainability.

Providing the Framework

The University created a facilities master plan in 2000 that outlined proposals for accomplishing major advances in undergraduate research and teaching initiatives in the natural sciences and engineering programs. This marked the first time the original master plan was updated since the University was founded in 1924. The 2000 document included eight principles and an illustrative plan that framed the campus planning process for the 21st Century.

The principles refer to Duke as having a historic and dynamic campus, a goal that was easily achieved by merely retaining the gothic architecture and outdoor spaces. Another principle talks about the desire to be a pedestrian campus with an understandable circulation system.

Other principles call for Duke to be a premier University; to include an internationally recognized health system; to have a collection of memorable places; to be a citizen of Durham, N.C., and the surrounding region; and to be a “community of communities.” Lastly, the University embraced the emergence of sustainable design, even though the topic was still avant-garde at that time.

The master plan envisioned the construction of the 275,000-sf FFSC and the Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine & Applied Science (CIEMAS) that would double the size of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. These buildings are part of the science and engineering complex clustered within a short distance from each other on the main West Campus. The FFSC fits in well with the framework outlined by the master plan.

Program Elements

The FFSC building program features five key elements that were outlined by the University’s academic strategic plan, including:

• Provide state-of-the-art laboratory space for the natural sciences.
• Provide first-rate undergraduate teaching facilities.
• Encourage interaction within disciplines and between departments.
• Provide flexibility for laboratory groups to expand and contract with the aim of optimizing the efficient use of laboratory space.
• Provide cutting-edge core facilities to support present and future research needs.

The FFSC, which includes research and teaching laboratories for biology, chemistry, and physics, meets all of these objectives. The building is 530 feet long and features 157 research labs and 249 fume hoods to support research and teaching in multiple disciplines. All of the laboratory modules are the same throughout the building to provide optimal flexibility and to easily accommodate research with the minimal movement of equipment.

To encourage interaction between disciplines, laboratory spaces are designed to accommodate two to five research groups with faculty offices grouped together. Cross-disciplinary interaction is achieved on each floor by intermixing laboratories for biology, chemistry, and physics. Shared laboratory space addresses the need for flexibility.

The integration of computational research with biology and chemistry is facilitated by the strategic placement of dry laboratories adjacent to experimental laboratories. The advanced undergraduate laboratories for physics and chemistry are adjacent to each other to encourage overlap and sharing of resources.

Although there are adjacencies featured in the building, the majority of the chemistry spaces are located in the north wing, while biology is situated more in the south wing near the existing Bio-Sciences Building.

“The flexibility we initially built into the plan with support from the highest level of the University overrode a lot of the departmental and faculty concepts of how they wanted to be adjacent to each other,” says Pearce. “When you create a building to encourage interdisciplinary teaching, the individual departments are inclined to protect their own interests. Therefore, we always had a dean or a vice provost attend the meetings we had with different groups. We wanted everybody to understand that this was a top-down decision to make this an interdisciplinary building.”

Core facilities and support infrastructure are available to accommodate current and future research needs. All of the support systems, including mechanical, plumbing, and electrical, are flexible enough to suit future fit-out.

The teaching facilities are located on the first level of the five-story building with adjacent research labs so students can interact. The biology teaching labs are adjacent to the chemistry teaching labs.

Interaction between departments is also achieved with the use of horizontal bridges and cascading stairs throughout the building in a way that allows labs located on the five levels to interact. In addition, the common space on the first floor of the FFSC is a great place for forums on science for undergraduates, graduates, and visitors who come to the University. A 300-foot long atrium allows natural light to filter throughout the building, providing a pleasant atmosphere for individuals working, groups studying, and people socializing.

The Greening of Duke University

Sustainability on the Duke campus has been driven, in part, by the students who have started a variety of clubs to promote and encourage green initiatives. The actual timeline in terms of when the University began to ramp up its sustainability efforts started in 1993 with the adoption of campus design guidelines that incorporated energy-saving performance standards and a long-life approach for materials and equipment.

Duke adopted a formal campus LEED policy in 2003 and hired the University’s first sustainability coordinator a year later. In 2004, the University also implemented a green purchasing policy, hired a green dining coordinator, and conducted its first greenhouse gas inventory. The adoption of a campus environmental policy occurred in 2005 and in 2007, the FFSC became the 17th registered or certified LEED building at Duke.

“It is absolutely critical that you get the institutional commitment in the early phase of a project because you need to view sustainability in a holistic way,” says Pearce. “Sustainability should be more like DNA, embedded in everything we do. Living, learning, and working in this place should send along signals to co-exist more respectively with the environment. We need to hold ourselves more accountable to these standards through measurement and feedback.”

Implementing sustainability guidelines and measures can be challenging within the opportunistic and decentralized culture of the academic environment, according to Pearce. Educational opportunities should be entrenched in all sustainability projects and actions.

LEED categories that apply to the FFSC include sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, environmental quality, and innovation in design. Storm water management is achieved using 15,000 sf of green roof space and a 70,000-gallon underground cistern to capture condensate and roof runoff for site irrigation. Shading and reflective materials are used on the roof and on-site to reduce heat island effect.

Water efficiency is accomplished by using landscaping that reduces or eliminates the need for potable water or irrigation, and the reduction of daily consumption of potable water to the building. The result has been a 51 percent water savings.

Energy and atmosphere standards require the use of energy-efficient glazing and reflective louvers on 275 windows. A 44 percent energy-use reduction was realized due to wall construction, reflective roofs, energy-efficient glazing, and energy-efficient lighting. Energy performance is maximized using occupancy sensors, high-efficiency equipment, glycol loop, and heat recovery wheels. Additional commissioning ensures equipment is installed and maintained properly.

Duke meets the materials and standards guidelines of the LEED certification process because all projects recycle construction debris in excess of 50 percent. All Duke projects reach recycled content over 10 percent of materials costs, and local materials are used for air handling units, pre-cast, wood veneer, or carpet. More than 90 percent of the wood used in University projects is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

The University also uses low-VOC paints, adhesives, sealants, and carpet in its renovations and new buildings, an initiative that meets environmental quality standards. Duke also separates copy rooms and chemical mixing rooms from the main building by using full-height partitions and dedicated exhaust systems. Entry mats at the main doorways trap dirt and particulates.

The innovation in design criteria was met at Duke by commissioning all fume hoods and implementing measures to reduce water usage.

Lessons Learned on the FFSC Project

“An approved University strategic plan provides an academic road map for trustees, the president, the provost, the deans, department chairs, and the faculty,” says Pearce. “You couldn’t do a building like this without their support.”

It is also important to have an approved facilities master plan that defines principles and objectives. The plan makes it possible to gauge whether the project is on track and meets the outlined goals.

An institutional commitment to sustainability is necessary in order to provide design, construction, and operations for the long-term.

“Talk about sustainability in every project because that’s what the 21st Century is about,” says Pearce. “Sustainable principles and goals have to be included in the design, construction, and operations.”

By Tracy Carbasho

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