A Luxurious Lab

Stanford Structure Includes Gourmet Restaurant

By Thomas York

The $147-million James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences at Stanford University shattered the mold for the construction of campus research laboratories.

The building features 95,000 sq. ft. of wide-open research labs set behind floor-to-ceiling glass exterior walls, plus novel support facilities such as a 24-hour coffee shop and gourmet restaurant.

Completed in October, the 146,000-sq.-ft., three-story structure houses Stanford's forward-thinking Bio-X project-a program geared to promote collaborative medical research projects among the various engineering and biological science schools on campus.

The building will house up to 48 principal researchers and their research teams. >>

Two years before construction began in June 2001, Stanford officials brought in representatives from the Santa Clara office of Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Co. and its many subcontractors-including structural steel producer Gayle Manufacturing Co. and laboratory designer Therma to participate in early planning sessions.

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"Our subs were brought into the design process very early to help with constructability issues, means and methods and to recommend specific materials," said Rick Arnesen, Hathaway Dinwiddie's project executive, who has been on the project since 1999. "Mock-ups of many systems were created, modified and used with great success, allowing the team to work out issues, develop standard pricing and expedite the installation."

For example, university researchers told the design team-San Francisco-based MBT Architects (architect of record) and London-based Foster & Partners (associate architect)-that a stiff building was required to permit the use of sensitive equipment such as molecular microscopes intolerant of even the slightest floor vibrations.

Hathaway workers poured two layers of concrete flooring that rest on 40-in. beams, rather than 12-in.beams, to reduce vibrations. The top layer required much greater control in the pouring to prevent cracking because it was only 1-in. thick, Arnesen said.

The bones of the building contain heavier brace frames from Gayle Manufacturing to allow for the more expansive spaces that characterize the laboratories. The building also has thicker concrete slabs on the roof for vibration dampening.

MBT and Hathaway chose to run the utilities through 20-in.-diameter openings punched through the beams because the size of the beams prevented service spaces between the floor and ceiling and would not accommodate air-conditioning, sprinkler and smoke-detector systems.

The design team also decided to suspend industrial-like racks from the laboratory ceilings to carry the necessary service lines, such as air, gas, vacuum, water, electrical and telephone.

The racks have a significant advantage in that they help create the flexibility desired by researchers who may want to change the layout of their labs. When equipment is moved for new research projects, lab workers don't have to tear into ceiling materials to tap into the lines.

All of the lines are funneled from racks and drops manufactured by Unistrut Laboratory Corp. Workers can quickly unbolt the drops and move the lines to fit new configurations.

Hathaway also worked with MBT and subcontractor Walters & Wolf of LaVerne to help with such items as exterior cladding, stone and curtain-wall systems to keep the project on budget.

For example, the architects proposed using copper sheeting on the canopies, which overhang the three wings of the structure's courtyard, but Hathaway team members rejected the proposal.

"Copper … was far too expensive to meet the budget constraints of the project," Arnesen said. Instead, "the architects found a color for the metal cladding that mimics the historical clay tile roofs of the campus buildings."

The use of stainless-steel column covers to set off the industrial look and feel of the laboratory spaces was rejected due to its high cost, Arneson added.

"Stainless interior column covers were originally suggested by the architect, but we were able to use a simple galvanized column cover that met the need but was cost effective," he said.

Shelly Tully III, MBT's principal laboratory architect, said all of the team members on the project were engaged in "culture busting-bringing researchers from the different departments to work in a totally new culture." "We were always looking for ways to achieve the vision that Stanford had for this building," Tully said. "We think we achieved that."

Tully called the project a grand experiment, "but whether it achieves what we set out to do remains to be seen."

Arnesen said his participation in the project from start to finish was the highlight of his career in construction. "It's not often that you get to work on an innovative building like the Clark Center," he added.