When a thrust of a project is to facilitate and inspire top notch research, details matter.
In the 12-story Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center, a structure designed by Perkins+Will, contemporary design facilitates scientific research by easing the process. Research areas in the new 627,000-square-foot facility include spaces for work on diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
The structure has laboratories created with their intent in mind. Built around “research neighborhoods,” as well as connections to hospitals on campus and the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center of Northwestern University, the spaces engender collaboration and discovery. Through the new facility, the university now offers the flexible spaces necessary for research.
“The Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center is an inspired new home for discovery on Northwestern University’s Chicago medical campus,” said Dr. Eric G. Neilson, vice president for medical affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Inside this modern new building, scientists will pioneer discoveries that will impact the practice of medicine and transform human health. Here, we will accelerate the pace of lifesaving medical science that fuels the local and national economy, near world-class campus partners and in a global city with unrivaled opportunities for biomedical commercialization and entrepreneurship.”
See Also: OMA unveils design for New Museum's second gallery building
Touted by the university as the largest new academic biomedical research facility in the country, the research center makes the most of limited space in a tight area. Designed with open space at the street level and a glass lobby creating an open feel, the building’s modern design echoes the state-of-art research inside.
About 1,500 researchers labor on nine laboratory floors of the new building. It’s the core a newly unified academic medical district comprising physicians and scientists from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the McCormick School of Engineering, and the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, along with clinical affiliates Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
“The building was designed with elegance and transparency in mind, welcoming the public at street level and prioritizing varied space types, natural light, and extensive collaboration areas,” said Ralph Johnson, Design Director at Perkins+Will.
Twenty-three labs on each floor can be reconfigured to fit research needs. Positioned at the center of the facility, the labs are ringed by glass walls to allow natural light. Two-story collaboration spaces connect groupings of lab levels by way of a cantilevered balcony and staircase.
A multi-story atrium lobby in the building can be used for events of up to 300. The atrium, located at the base of the building’s curving glass façade, connects to the Lurie Medical Research Center and the campus bridge network.
Related Stories
| Jun 9, 2014
6 design strategies for integrating living and learning on campus
Higher education is rapidly evolving. As we use planning and design to help our clients navigate major shifts in culture, technology, and funding, it is essential to focus on strategies that help foster an education that is relevant after graduation. One way to promote relevance is to strengthen the bond between academic disciplines and the campus residential life experience.
| May 29, 2014
7 cost-effective ways to make U.S. infrastructure more resilient
Moving critical elements to higher ground and designing for longer lifespans are just some of the ways cities and governments can make infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate change, writes Richard Cavallaro, President of Skanska USA Civil.
Sponsored | | May 27, 2014
Grim Hall opens the door to fire safety with fire-rated ceramic glass
For the renovation of Lincoln University’s Grim Hall life sciences building into a state-of-the-art computer facility, Tevebaugh Associates worked to provide students and faculty with improved life safety protection. Updating the 1925-era facility's fire-rated doors was an important component of the project.
| May 20, 2014
Kinetic Architecture: New book explores innovations in active façades
The book, co-authored by Arup's Russell Fortmeyer, illustrates the various ways architects, consultants, and engineers approach energy and comfort by manipulating air, water, and light through the layers of passive and active building envelope systems.
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 13, 2014
19 industry groups team to promote resilient planning and building materials
The industry associations, with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, have issued a joint statement on resilience, pushing design and building solutions for disaster mitigation.
| May 11, 2014
Final call for entries: 2014 Giants 300 survey
BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 survey forms are due Wednesday, May 21. Survey results will be published in our July 2014 issue. The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
| May 10, 2014
How your firm can gain an edge on university projects
Top administrators from five major universities describe how they are optimizing value on capital expenditures, financing, and design trends—and how their AEC partners can better serve them and other academic clients.
| May 1, 2014
First look: Cal State San Marcos's posh student union complex
The new 89,000-sf University Student Union at CSUSM features a massive, open-air amphitheater, student activity center with a game lounge, rooftop garden and patio, and ballroom space.
| Apr 29, 2014
USGBC launches real-time green building data dashboard
The online data visualization resource highlights green building data for each state and Washington, D.C.