Latest Reports

Genentech will apply an innovative, data-driven space-optimization model when it opens its newest 250,000-sf office building in 2015. The facility’s headcount will exceed seating capacity, and space will be assigned to groups but not to individuals within the group.

The Molecular Engineering and Sciences Building (MolES) at the University of Washington demonstrates that flexible university science facilities can encourage collaboration and accommodate unknown occupants, but be mindful of the need for a variety of dedicated meeting spaces and private areas, and the potential need for a shift in the office/lab culture and the mindsets of the facility’s users.

In the concluding Open Forum/Town Hall session of Tradeline’s Tradeline’s 2013 College and University Science Facilities Conference, moderator Derek Westfall, president of Tradeline, and subject matter commentators Kelly Cramm, senior associate at Henderson Engineers, Inc., and Samir Srouji, principal with Wilson Architects, led an interactive knowledge exchange on questions posed by conference attendees. This is an edited transcript of that exchange.

New metrics for designing scientific research space measure the predictors of human interaction in a research environment. While traditional metrics measure productivity in quantitative terms, new metrics—based on interaction, sustainability, and performance—look at qualitative factors to determine what type of environments encourage collaborative research.

The Margaret Murie Building for life sciences sets the stage for a more collaborative approach to teaching and research at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF). The first new biology building on campus in more than 40 years, it replaces the siloed legacy lab buildings housing one PI for each lab that would be used only 30 percent of the time.