Space Use

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for the research community to respond quickly to changing markets and to understand the value of laboratory spaces that are flexible, adaptable, and scalable. We’ve seen stadiums converted to makeshift hospitals, “drive-through” testing sites pop up in vacant parking lots, and testing laboratories continually ramp up production to expedite results. This quick-thinking behavior has been inspiring to witness but daunting to execute. Laboratories, by nature, are among the most complex building typologies, where the utmost importance is protecting both the health and safety of their occupants and the integrity of the research. The complexities of the resulting design can be challenging to undertake, but when faced with the extreme circumstances of a pandemic, it is possible to expedite the process with a combination of strategies.

The COVID Consultants℠ and Better Efficiency Solutions & Technologies LLC (BEST) launched the COVIDefender™ Student Housing Portal in August 2020. Offering tools, guidance, and access to crucial information, the online service enables students and off-campus housing authorities to:

The University of North Dakota is planning to break ground in fall of 2020 on the $70 million Nistler College of Business and Public Administration in Grand Forks. Designed by JLG Architects, the four-story, 111,000-sf facility will offer highly flexible learning environments capable of accommodating a wide range of instructional modalities. Technology-enabled classrooms will support a combination of online and in-person instruction, with educational spaces right-sized for appropriate density metrics.

UC Davis Health will renovate an existing 194,000-sf facility to provide consolidated administrative space in Rancho Cordova, Calif. Designed by Stantec, the $48 million project will enhance efficiency for several operational groups by creating a central collaborative location. Offering flexible workstation environments, focus rooms, huddle areas, conference rooms, and gathering spaces, the building will accommodate employees working in human resources, finance, revenue, information technology, and executive leadership.

Fitwel launched its Viral Response module in July of 2020. The platform provides annual, third-party building certification of policies and practices informed by the latest public health research on mitigating the spread of infectious diseases. Fitwel, a healthy building certification system operated by The Center for Active Design, was originally created by the U.S. General Services Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Building automation systems (BAS), computerized maintenance management systems, data analytics software, and human motion modeling software are being reimagined to allow people to safely occupy their workspaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, by collecting data in new ways and sharing it like never before. Data can be made available on dashboards and mobile devices to inform the countless decisions occupants make in the course of their workday—including choosing a route to their office, an elevator, a desk, or a restroom—all with the lens of maintaining social distances and maximizing sanitation.

Pivotal is partnering with Optum and Array Analytics to offer a live webinar at 12:00 PM (EDT) on July 29, 2020. "It's Time to Be Agile: Planning for the Future of Healthcare" will explore the integration of healthcare strategic planning with asset management and facilities planning. The session will detail ways that data can be leveraged through technology to enable health systems to quickly adapt to market transformations.

Topics will include:

The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) approved a healthy buildings resolution in June of 2020. "Advancing Healthy Buildings in the Fight Against COVID-19" will support the implementation of integrated solutions for the design and operation of public facilities.

Change is inevitable over the life of a research facility, but modular design and careful attention to utilities—for both adaptability and flexibility—can minimize disruptions and future-proof infrastructure. Enrollment growth at major research institutions is outpacing available space to support the research activities. In addition, programs and buildings are now more technically complex than those built decades ago, with unique requirements, such as animal facilities, cage-washing capability, greenhouse space, and open laboratories. “We are not designing every single space, every single outlet, for a single investigator,” says Timothy Reynolds, a principal with TreanorHL Science & Technology. “We are designing it for investigators that are going to be here 25 years from now. We don’t want to go down the road to find that the facilities that we design today, that are still in operation in 50 years, can’t be modified.” These principles are even more important now, given the challenges university faculty members, staff, and students face in the current pandemic. The use of modular planning, moveable furniture systems and laboratory casework, and flexible infrastructure can allow for the rapid changes called for today. A space in one of TreanorHL’s recent facilities, for example, has been converted to a sterile compounding lab to produce a solution for COVID-19 testing.

Arc Skoru has launched the Arc Re-Entry platform to support the safe reoccupancy of buildings during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Providing facilities owners and managers with a set of tools for data acquisition and analysis, Arc Re-Entry can be used to:

LEO A DALY published a white paper in June of 2020 detailing strategies for academic campus operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Created by a group of planners, architects, and engineers specializing in higher education, the report explores how emerging guidelines can be applied to existing buildings. The team applied design thinking to three key areas:

Purdue University released the "Protect Purdue" strategic reopening plan in June of 2020. Incorporating the latest scientific guidance, the university has developed an array of tools and operational protocols to safely resume campus activities while limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The plan aims to create a culture of safety and accountability through a universal pledge by students, faculty, and staff to assume personal responsibility for protecting themselves, others, and the Purdue community.

While many campuses remain closed to undergraduate students, at least through the summer, researchers are beginning a phased return to their labs, with new safety protocols that include face masks and social distancing; guidelines for space usage and maintenance; and staggered work schedules. Institutions are requiring that researchers continue to do as much work as possible remotely, including writing, analyzing data, and conferring with colleagues. In order for research to fully resume, however, faculty need access to their labs, but they first must be trained in the new protocols and agree to adhere to them; failure to do so will results in the loss of lab access.

Trinity College’s new Innovation Center, located on the third floor of One Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford, Conn., across from the school’s Liberal Arts Action Lab, is home to the academic/corporate partnership with InfoSys, a Digital Health CT accelerator, and new innovation and entrepreneurship programs for students. The open, flexible floor plan of the Common Area, which is open to all members of the Trinity community, gives occupants the freedom to reconfigure the space however they’d like. Other spaces include technology-enabled team huddle areas; an interactive work café with a variety of seating options, digital display, and writeable surfaces; enclosed meeting spaces; and small design studios.

The International WELL Building Institute launched the WELL Health-Safety Rating for all building and facility types in June of 2020. The evidence-based, third-party-verified rating system focuses on operational policies, maintenance protocols, and design strategies for the post-COVID-19 environment.