When the Francis Crick Institute opens this summer, in London, it will be the quintessence of the future direction of science and technology facilities.
TOP 40 SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Perkins+Will $60,040,000
2. HDR $56,664,000
3. HOK $50,435,000
4. Payette $35,458,760
5. Stantec $34,755,593
6. Flad Architects $29,730,000
7. SmithGroupJJR $26,205,000
8. DGA $21,133,997
9. Page $19,500,000
10. ZGF Architects $18,405,848
TOP 30 SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Skanska USA $461,469,485
2. Suffolk Construction Co. $307,964,240
3. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The $141,886,037
4. JE Dunn Construction $100,808,913
5. Turner Construction Co. $91,930,708
6. Gilbane Building Co. $52,712,000
7. DPR Construction $40,625,000
8. Jacobs $24,060,000
9. Sundt Construction $23,322,783
10. Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors $21,132,000
TOP 50 SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Jacobs $51,420,000
2. Affiliated Engineers $29,447,000
3. Vanderweil Engineers $21,653,900
4. CRB $10,200,000
5. RMF Engineering $6,285,000
6. Mazzetti $5,199,075
7. Thornton Tomasetti $4,686,534
8. Newcomb & Boyd $3,466,430
9. Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering $3,335,000
10. Global Engineering Solutions $3,275,000
The 980,000-sf, $931 million facility is the result of a unique financing mechanism that brought together three of the U.K.’s heaviest funders of biomedical research—the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, and the Wellcome Trust—and three leading universities—University College London, Imperial College London, and King’s College London.
“The Crick,” as it’s known, is organized into four “laboratory neighborhoods” that encourage multidisciplinary interaction among its 1,500 scientists. Offices and labs have floor-to-ceiling glazing. The facility is designed around two atria that allow visibility throughout the building and between floors.
The design emphasizes communal space by enabling people to peer into multiple floors, according to Larry Malcic, AIA, LEED GA, SVP/Design Principal in the London office of HOK, which designed the lab. The idea, he said, is to “put science on display and promote collaboration.”
Projects like The Crick practically force scientists, engineers, and technicians from disparate fields to interact. “Things are happening between disciplines now, and there are a lot more buildings with oddball combinations of sciences,” says HDR Design Principal Dan Rew, AIA, LEED AP.
The state of Maryland’s $180 million Public Health Lab, which opened last year at Forest City’s Science Park, in Baltimore, exemplifies this pattern. HDR provided architectural and engineering services for the five-story, 200,000-sf lab, which does testing, consulting, and offers regulatory support related to infectious disease, epidemiology, environmental, and regulatory public health issues.
The open-lab concept allows operations to scale up and mobilize quickly in the event of an emergency, says HDR VP Warren Hendrickson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C. The ground floor, where first responders train, is visible from the street. The building is also linked to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Seattle, the 270,000-sf headquarters of the Allen Institute is programmed for team science, says Kay Kornovich, RA, LEED AP, NCARB, Managing Director, Perkins+Will, Seattle. She says the institute wanted to break down walls between “carpet” people (managers) and “vinyl” people (researchers).
The building, which opened last December, focuses on brain and cell sciences. It is organized in a series of “petals” grouped around a six-story atrium. Cantilevered into the atrium are glass-walled collaboration pods outfitted with comfortable seating and whiteboards. “In any part of the building, you can see science and meetings going on,” says Kornovich.
Saving money can be the impetus for combining disciplines and buildings. Shepley Bulfinch’s design for the University of Houston’s Health and Science Building II connects the nine-story, 300,000-sf structure to H&S Building I. This will allow them to share loading docks, animal care facilities, and expensive equipment like NMR machines, says Luke Voiland, AIA, LEED AP, Principal in the firm’s Houston office.
“Clients are trying to do more with less, like bringing physics and engineering departments together,” adds Ed Burton, SmithGroupJJR’s S+T National Practice Leader. He points to the $80 million, 136,500-sf Senator Daniel K. Inouye Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Center for Excellence, which opened last September at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, in Oahu, Hawaii. The lab consolidates operations that had been spread out over three military installations.
Some S+T facilities are incorporating business development into their objectives. Half of the space in the H&S building at the University of Houston will be used to train future pharmacists, and the other half for drug discovery research. This trend might explain why computational, simulation, and STEM labs are all the rage now. “The incubator mentality is creeping into labs,” says HDR’s Rew.
Last September, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, in collaboration with the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, completed the 210-sf Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy demonstration project. AMIE 1.0 is a 3D-printed building designed to produce and store renewable power and share energy wirelessly with a 3D-printed vehicle developed by the DOE. The project aimed to demonstrate the use of bidirectional wireless energy technology and high-performance materials to achieve independence from the power grid at peak-demand periods.
Philip Enquist, FAIA, SOM’s Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning, sees AMIE 1.0 as “the beginning of a new chapter” in building for a resilient future.
Leo A Daly is working on the Emergent Technologies Institute, located on 6.5 acres of Florida Gulf Coast University’s campus, in Fort Myers. Public and private researchers will develop and test wind, solar, and agricultural technologies at this 24,600-sf incubator lab.
“We designed an infrastructure that provides a backbone for research, but remains adaptable to the academic and business communities’ needs,” says Robert Thomas, AIA, LEED AP, Leo A Daly’s Principal of S+T.
RETURN TO THE GIANTS 300 LANDING PAGE
Related Stories
Architects | Feb 27, 2015
5 finalists announced for 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award
Bjarke Ingels' Danish Maritime Museum and the Ravensburg Art Museum by Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei are among the five projects vying for the award.
Office Buildings | Feb 26, 2015
Using active design techniques to strengthen the corporate workplace and enhance employee wellness
The new Lentz Public Health Center in Nashville, Tenn., serves as a model of how those progressive and healthy changes can be made.
K-12 Schools | Feb 26, 2015
Should your next school project include a safe room?
Many school districts continue to resist mandating the inclusion of safe rooms or storm shelters in new and existing buildings. But that may be changing.
K-12 Schools | Feb 26, 2015
Construction funding still scarce for many school districts
Many districts are struggling to have new construction and renovation keep pace with student population growth.
K-12 Schools | Feb 26, 2015
D.C.'s Dunbar High School is world's highest-scoring LEED school, earns 91% of base credits
The 280,000-sf school achieved 91 points, out of 100 base points possible for LEED, making it the highest-scoring school in the world certified under USGBC’s LEED for Schools-New Construction system.
K-12 Schools | Feb 25, 2015
Polish architect designs modular ‘kids city’ kindergarten using shipping container frames
Forget the retrofit of a shipping container into a building for one moment. Designboom showcases the plans of Polish architect Adam Wiercinski to use just the recycled frames of containers to construct a “kids city.”
Cultural Facilities | Feb 25, 2015
Bjarke Ingels designs geodesic dome for energy production, community use
A new building in Uppsala, Sweden, will serve as a power plant during the winter and a venue for shows, festivals, and music events during the warm months.
Cultural Facilities | Feb 25, 2015
Edmonton considering 'freezeway' to embrace winter
If the new Edmonton Freezeway is constructed, residents will have an 11-km course that winds through the city and allows them to skate to work, school, and other city activities.
Building Team | Feb 24, 2015
Call for entries: 2015 Giants 300 survey
The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
Industrial Facilities | Feb 24, 2015
Starchitecture meets agriculture: OMA unveils design for Kentucky community farming facility
The $460 million Food Port project will define a new model for the relationship between consumer and producer.