Customized Labs Give Universities a Recruiting Edge
Date Posted: July 28, 2020
Posted In: Ideas, Organizations,
From Building Design + Construction: When Andrew Labov began his career with CO Architects in 1987, it wasn’t all that rare for universities to customize their labs for specific users. But over the years the cost of construction and renovation became prohibitive, so universities made their lab spaces as flexible as possible.
More recently, customization has been making a comeback, partly out of necessity as research universities vie for top students and high-profile faculty. CO Architects, which is based in Los Angeles, has cultivated this specialty, thanks, explains Labov, FAIA, LEED AP, a Principal with the firm, to the “proliferation” of inexpensive research equipment, coupled with the trend in science toward “conversion,” where disciplines overlap. (Bioengineering was one of the first hybrids.)
Among the research universities for which CO Architects has designed labs to accommodate this trend are the University of Texas in Austin, the University of Southern California, and the University of California at San Diego.
Since 2013, CO Architects has delivered a series of highly customized lab renovations and office interior fitouts for the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, several of which conformed with the criteria of individual researchers.
The firm developed 1,200 sf of lab space for Assistant Professor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences Katie Bouman, who is best known for having captured the first images of a black hole. That space combined a computer science lab and photo studio, with a neutral area that synthesizes the two.
Other “designer” labs at Caltech include the 3,318-sf Shapiro Lab that supports the work of Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Mikhail Shapiro and his team that develops molecular technologies to image and control the function of cells in order to study nervous system function and diseases. CO Architects also renovated a 8,500-sf lab and office space for Assistant Professor of Biology Yuki Oka and Betty Hong, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Caltech’s biology and bioengineering division. This project featured a main lab, modernized dark room, a new CITnet room, animal research lab, and BBE equipment room.