Latest Reports

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is proving that extensive planning and looking beyond typical short-term measures can net significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as cost savings, even in high-powered lab facilities. In only the third year of a 17-year project, CUMC has realized a 4 percent drop in greenhouse gasses, and a 15 percent drop in utility costs.

A 168,300-sf addition and 43,000-sf renovation to the Marshall Conant Science Center allows Bridgewater State University to consolidate biology, chemistry, earth science, geography, physics, math, and computer science departments under one roof to accommodate the 10-fold increase in full-time enrollment since the center was built in 1964. The project transforms an outdated building into a state-of-the-art science facility that revitalizes the heart of the main campus by improving the campus space outside the building and fundamentally changing the way science is studied within.

With academic research funding either flat or slumping, it’s time to rethink current laboratory design standards. Concurrent with the funding slide is a hike in both direct costs (salaries, for example) and indirect research costs like spending on facilities operation, equipment, and labor. At the same time, the demand for space continues to increase unabated.

The new College of Pharmacy building at the University of Rhode Island allows the College’s scattered facilities to be housed under one roof for the first time.

A study at Yale University suggests that quantitative performance analysis of laboratory airflow may show more conclusive results than traditional methods of measurement, and thus obviate the perceived need for costly retrofits and upgrades in order to comply with the CDC/NIH’s new prohibition against reversal of airflow under failure conditions found in Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories 5^th Edition (BMBL).