Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s multi-disciplinary facilities successfully reinvent a leading research center.
Ocean science was still in its infancy when the first laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., was completed in the summer of 1931. Later named for the first director, Henry Bigelow, the building was an important first step in what would become one of the world’s leading non-profit research centers.
 White cedar siding is common to many buildings on WHOI’s Quissett campus and throughout Cape Cod. In addition to matching the surrounding environment, the Biogeochemistry Building, left, works with the Marine Research Facility, foreground, to create a new campus core. Photo: Anton Grassl Photography |
As techniques for studying the ocean have advanced, so has the work environment for researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Two new laboratories, the Stanley Watson Laboratory, also known as the Biogeochemistry (BGC) Research Building, and the marine Research Facility (MRF) represent an innovative design miles ahead of what existed before. For this achievement, R&D Magazine has recognized WHOI’s new labs with High Honors in the 2007 Lab of the Year competition.
The new facilities represent a 25% increase in WHOI’s scientific facilities, or nearly 7,000 m2 of lab, office, and support space.
Delivering a fresh designA major goal for project architect Ellenzweig, Cambridge, Mass., was to promote ease of communication and travel between laboratories. Prior to this project, no new laboratory construction had taken place since 1990, and the Quissett campus was underutilized.
According to Jim Luyten, WHOI president, the campus lacked unity, and “microbiologists, geochemists, and geologists were spread out in different buildings on different campuses. We needed to do something to enhance opportunities for interdisciplinary interaction and stimulate work on this leading edge of ocean science.”
By more than doubling the research space, designers gave employees flexibility and relief from the inevitable clutter that accompanies high-tech ocean research.
A spacious lab was only part of the equation Ellenzweig was tasked to solve. Early on, designers noticed the campus resembled an industrial park more than a campus—buildings were spread out, roads and parking lots crisscrossed the campus without a pattern, and the power plant sat alone at the campus center.
Collaborating with landscape architects Stephen Stimson Associates, Falmouth, Mass., Ellenzweig launched the Campus Master Plan in 2002. The MRF is now the central fixture, straddling a roadway. It and the power plant are now one building. The BGC was built over what used to be a parking lot and has become the southwestern edge of a new central “quad” designed to promote pedestrian use.
According to R&D Lab of the Year judge Erik Mollo-Christensen of Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, Cambridge, Mass., the original concept was for one large facility, which he felt would have overwhelmed the Quissett campus.
“Both resulting buildings have a scale and intimacy which is completely appropriate and conducive to the relaxed culture at this institution,” Mollo-Christensen says. The site integration is both beautiful and charming, he continues, but is also highly utilitarian, keeping the messier functions separate from the bench labs.
Keeping everyone happy  Michael Moore, senior research specialist, biology, at WHOI, oversees the arrival of a 3.7 m Cuviers beaked whale which had been found stranded on a beach south of Boston in 2006. An overhead monorail was used to move the whale to the necropsy/computed tomography scanning facility for forensic study. Photo: Tom Kleindinst, WHOI |
Highly research oriented, the two-story BGC has more than three-quarters of its space devoted to lab or laboratory support for research in biology, geology, geophysics, chemistry, and other disciplines.Offices are partitioned from the labs by glass walls and a hallway and are lined up in a shallow arc facing east. The shape suggests a circle around the center of the campus. The labs themselves are a tangent to this arc, and at one end of the office partition is a conference room and lounge.
Joan Bernhard, associate scientist at WHOI, has been working in BGC for more than a year. “My lab is multidisciplinary like most others in the building. We work on live organisms and need a lab that can handle them,” she says.
The ground floor is divided into a “dead end” and the “live end.” The division is important because chemicals used on glassware in the dead end shouldn’t be mixed with equipment used for live specimens. The building also features a radioisotope room and microscopy facilities, including a laser scanning confocal microscope.
Dirty work with styleThe long simple rectangle that contains the Marine Research Facility belies its vital role in defining the center of Quissett campus. Inside, researchers study specimens collected from the world’s oceans and build seagoing analytical instruments. The presence of office space, social areas, and wet and dry laboratories means that workflow and environmental design were top priorities in the design.
“Rather than try to hide the large, wet, and dirty marine necropsy facility, the design team made it the focus of the Marine Research Facility and increased the researchers’ access to this key facility,” says Richard Rietz, R&D Lab of the Year judge and independent lab consultant from Helena, Mont.
Stainless steel is predominant in this area, where saltwater requires measures against corrosion. Bulky seagoing equipment and large specimens make at-grade roadway access important to both the marine necropsy facility and the instrument development lab. Equally useful are ceiling-mounted monorails, which hoist and transport heavy items.
“Even though this lab had fixed furniture, it was well done for a specific purpose. The operating room and MRI and rail system throughout the lab were all unique,” says R&D Lab of the Year judge Kevin Gilkison of Labconco, Kansas City, Mo.
Judges were impressed by the system’s novelty and how it was integrated with other lab areas—a specimen, for example, can be easily moved to the scanning room for magnetic-resonance imaging or transported to the freezer for later study and dissection.
Efficiency and comfortFor both labs, air flow adapts to demand, minimizing energy use. Smart fume hoods in each lab adjust continuously to maintain positive pressure, but at a reduced load.
Artificial light is controlled by motion sensors, and offices and labs benefit from daylighting. External materials, primarily white cedar, concrete walls, and zinc panels, were chosen to reduce processing and handling. South facing windows have sunscreens to minimize solar gain during peak hours.
Upgrades to the power plant amounted to $9 million and included electrical systems to reduce the impact of a power outage, an energy-efficient chiller and boiler, and a waste-water treatment facility that handles both sanitary and lab waste.
“To my mind, the biggest success of the building is how it created an environment for informal interaction that was lacking from our earlier workplaces,” says Peter Tyack, a senior scientist at WHOI who works at MRF.
Tyack says this design has allowed the necropsy lab to become a magnet for classes and colleagues who regularly peek in to glimpse new research. The lounge area of BGC, in fact, is now one of the choice locations on campus for meetings.
“This is a testimonial of the facility fitting the science,” says R&D Lab of the Year judge Rick Johnson of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Two Rivers, Wisc. “The research facility maximized the location and orientation of the site. The campus plan lends itself to ease of flow of people, materials, and services.”
Probably the best compliment, however, has been paid by scientists from other labs.
“Colleagues who come here and see the lab can’t wait to come back. They want to spend their sabbatical here,” says Bernhard.
—Paul Livingstone Vital Stats
Project: Biogeochemistry Research Building (The Stanley Watson Laboratory) and New Marine Research Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mass.
Size: 6,968 m2, including energy plant
Budget: $26 million, including energy plant
Architect/Engineer: Ellenzweig, Cambridge, Mass. (lead architect); Bond Brothers Inc., Everett, Mass. (construction); Skanska USA Building Inc., Boston, Mass. (program manager); Stephen Stimson Associates, Falmouth, Mass.( landscape architect); LeMessurier Consultants, Cambridge, Mass. (structural engineer)
Completion date: December 2005 |