The $82-million facility, completed in April 2006, is situated at the heart of UAB’s medical and research community. The building is viewed as a focal point not only because of its location, but more importantly, because of the role it will play in helping the University maintain its reputation as a world-renowned research institution and academic medical center. UAB Hospital, for example, is well-known for its expertise in cardiology.

Located on the south side of Birmingham’s downtown, the urban university occupies approximately 82 blocks, has 16,000 students and is the state’s largest employer with 17,000 employees. UAB receives more than $460 million in annual research grants and contracts and is among the Top 20 institutions that receive the highest amount of funding from the National Institutes of Health. The 12-story, 315,000-sf Shelby building, a design-bid-build project completed in multiple phases, increases the University’s overall amount of research space by about 25 percent and is expected to attract an additional $100 million in annual funding.

Being such a driving force in the state’s economy and the medical community compels UAB scientists to push the envelope in understanding human diseases and investigating new treatments and cures. The new building, which can accommodate 650 people at maximum occupancy, will house research programs pertaining to autoimmunity and immunobiology, diabetes, biomedical engineering, and diseases and injuries related to the brain.

Conducting such innovative research requires the use of the most modern equipment in state-of-the-art buildings, such as Shelby, which can meet the needs of researchers well into the future. The building is named in honor of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby and his wife, Annette Nevin Shelby, who provided substantial support in securing funding for the project.

An Abundance of Challenges

The University’s goals for the project were to work within the confines of a fixed budget to quickly deliver an adaptable and flexible research facility capable of accommodating multiple scientific programs with 27 lab functions, while operating at an efficiency level of at least 65 percent and maximizing energy savings. It is challenging to determine the best way to invest capital costs to enhance a building’s efficiency without requiring more space and resulting in expensive operating costs.

Meeting the goals was not an easy task in light of the challenges presented by site constraints of a tight urban area surrounded by two parking garages and a utility service court. The site restrictions were comparable to trying to stuff 10 pounds of material into a five-pound bag. As a result of the site limitations, space requirements had to be reduced from 400,000 sf to 315,000 sf while continuing to support the science programs. The design team looked at other buildings in Birmingham to see what aesthetic precedents had been set and what type of design is best suited for highly urban settings.

“The UAB is an urban campus with a complex network of parking garages and circulation paths,” says Jim James, executive director of Facilities Planning and Design at the UAB.

As a result of the site limitations, it is important to understand the architectural integrity and style of a building and how it fits into a specific context whether it be in Alabama or California, but the fit should never get in the way of the interior layout of the facility.

Another challenge involved creating a project vision that would attract donor support. Potential donors were intrigued by the initial sketches of the historic-looking building, which features facades of limestone and brick, giving it a sense of style and grandeur. The initial funding for the project was approved before the detailed design of the building and the programming were completed.

Once funding was approved, the design team met with numerous users who have a stake in the 27 lab functions, ranging from immunobiology and rheumatic diseases to genetics and electrophysiology. There were varying opinions about what type of programming was necessary and how much space each user required, but it was obvious the lab functions had to be broken into modules to meet the needs of all the scientific programs within the confines of the building. The design focuses on creating a modern science building defined by its long economic life, or the ability to change research disciplines, teams, equipment, and processes very quickly, inexpensively, and for many decades to come.

Overcoming Obstacles

Addressing the challenges meant defining flexibility and efficiency, creating a modular overlap, and developing activity-based programming by talking to scientists about what they do versus what they need in their space.

Rule One: Flexibility

“Start with the floor plate, not the lab module,” advises Brian Kowalchuk, director of design at CUH2A in Princeton, N.J. “Work out a lab plate, understand the implications of that plate, and then apply the science needs to it.”

The floorplan of the building is simple and reinforces that particular corner of the campus. The concrete structure has 12 floors with a 13th level used for mechanical space, and the floor-to-floor height is 14 feet. Including a basement was not possible in this location, so all of the mechanical support comes from the uppermost floor.

From an engineering standpoint, it makes sense to have a vertical distribution of mechanical systems in a tall building. However, doing so creates an inefficient floor plate and takes away valuable interior space. The design team challenged traditional thinking by using a horizontal mechanical system and creating a flexible plug-and-play floor plate.

“It is critical to challenge the preconceived notion of what is the right thing to do in a building because this actually opened up a lot of possibilities in our efficiency and functionality,” says Richard Barocca, senior project architect in the Princeton, N.J., office of CUH2A.

It is crucial to keep the stairs, restrooms, and core functions out of the lab floor plate by putting them on the perimeter. Likewise, avoid vertical heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, as well as plumbing, and distribution lines in the floor space.

Rule 2:  Efficiency

Having a five-foot wide center circulation corridor dividing the research areas enhances flexibility and encourages interaction. This layout improves efficiency by four percent, increases natural lighting, and may result in 50 percent more collaboration among the building occupants than the traditional double or race-track corridor schemes.

Using 10-foot planning modules and short wings also results in gaining substantial square footage that would be lost using longer wings. The 10-foot modules enable the addition of an extra module per wing. The smaller modules are appropriate since extra large fume hoods and equipment will not be used in these areas.

Saving corridor space and lab space is an effective way to get more space in the given floor plate, thereby gaining efficiency.

“This is a very muscular lab building. We have tried wide corridors in other lab buildings, resulting in filing cabinets and office equipment being placed in the corridors, which then become fire hazards,” says James of UAB. “Five feet meets the minimum code requirements and is wide enough for most foot traffic. With a five-foot corridor, we maximized the amount of wet lab space and bench space for the researchers.”

Rule 3:  Module Overlap

One successful module concept is the notion of creating overlapping zones to allow change. Flexible support space can be layered throughout the building to provide more space, as needed, for offices or use by graduate or post-graduate students. The overlapping is not based on square footage, but rather on the needs of the scientists. The building, which consists of about 70 percent wet labs and 30 percent offices, features four overlapping lab modules located in two wings. Office space is predominantly aggregated in one corner.

“It is a very efficient floor plate achieved by not having one lab module fit all, but having a modular format with a zone in the middle that can overlap,” explains Kowalchuk. “It is like a junk drawer in the sense that if things overlap onto one another, you can make it, move it, and find stuff. Over 12 floors, this allows a lot of flexibility for those 27 different functions occurring here to vary or change in the building.”

Rule 4:  Activity-Based Programming

Developing activity-based programming begins by asking scientists what they do and not what type of space they need. Scientists will typically respond in terms of square footage when asked what they need for lab space, but are not as precise when it comes to office space. It is important to consider the type and size of equipment that will be used and the subsequent support services.

A 10-percent reduction in the amount of required space is achieved by using activity-based programming in the Brain Initiative Laboratory, part of the Shelby building where researchers study brain diseases and injuries, including behavioral disorders, spinal injuries, brain tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Final Thoughts

Using these four rules allowed designers to eliminate 85,000 sf from a building they initially thought would require 400,000 sf of space. The reduction was achieved without compromising the functional needs of the researchers.

“I am really proud of this building in terms of how it looks, how it works, and how it feels when you walk through it,” says Kowalchuk. “The trick is to balance the idea of how long a wing is, how wide it is, how you work with the scientists, and how you design the building.”

The exterior of the Shelby building features a spectacular portico and front entry, giving the facility stature and giving researchers a sense of being part of biomedical history in the making.

By Tracy Carbasho

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