University Forges Own Alternative to LEED Standards
Stanford University's recently implemented guidelines for sustainable buildings are emblematic of the desire to go beyond LEED™ compliance with a laundry list of "green" construction practices to incorporate the conservation of additional resources into a precisely defined project delivery process.

Although the ink is barely dry on its sustainability guidelines, Stanford has already had the opportunity to put them to the test. Here's an overview of three projects where sustainability measures have been deployed, even after reaching a substantial point in design or construction, and a peek at future plans.

Facility Design in the Quantum Age
Advances in supercomputing, imaging, analytical, and synthesis technologies, and multidisciplinary science are radically changing the facility needs of modern researchers. In order to stay at the forefront of emerging trends, it is now essential for scientists to have considerable amounts of computing power, the flexibility to incorporate a wide array of large high-tech tools with special requirements, and space programmed for collaboration among teams of investigators from diverse disciplines and institutions.

University of California, San Diego
The $48.5 million Natural Sciences building is an interdisciplinary facility that provides laboratory, teaching, and office space for Biology, Chemistry and Physics Department. Research emphasis is on biochemistry and Biophysics with teaching labs for undergraduate Chemistry.

University of California, San Diego
The Leichtag Family Foundation Biomedical Research building is a new, $45-million facility designed to house the biomedical components for the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. The building provides new wet research and core labs, lab support space, offices, and a vivarium.

Current Trends also include a Move Toward More Collaboration
Undergraduate university and college laboratories more than ever before are being designed to stress hands-on learning, and to be inviting to the non-scientific community. Art and display cases fill the common areas, and the labs frequently are glassed in rather than walled off, making the on-going research visible to visitors and scientists alike. At the same time, the research is becoming more sophisticated, with the integration of media technology and large equipment previously reserved for graduate schools and professional labs.

Chemistry, Biology, and Physics Present Their Own Variations
While the trend toward more hands-on learning and collaborative work in teaching laboratories is widespread, how those goals are achieved varies from discipline to discipline. Even the specialties within a field have different laboratory needs and therefore generate different designs.

University of California, Riverside
This new four-story Physical Sciences Building is an integral component of the planned extension of the University of California's Riverside campus, intended to support the significantly rapid growth in research within the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.