Collaborative effort brings research hub to campus

n years past, when MU erected a building, it served a specific college, such as education or engineering.

The new Life Sciences Center, however, turns that concept on its head.

“The Life Sciences Center is unique because researchers from six colleges and schools, rather than just a single department, will be using the building to conduct scientific research,” said Bobb Swanson, facilities project manager for Campus Facilities’ Planning, Design and Construction department. “The space is designed to be as flexible as possible, to accommodate the ebb and flow of research teams that will come together to use the facility, then reconfigure or return to their individual departments when a project is completed.”

When completed in 2002, the Life Sciences Center will provide laboratory space for up to 50 faculty working on research teams, in addition to undergraduate teaching labs, computer labs, two greenhouses and a 250-seat auditorium. Six MU schools and colleges will collaborate on research to improve food, health and the environment. The center helps complete the state's 'life sciences corridor' from St. Louis to Kansas City.

The $60 million building, now under construction on the east side of campus, will accommodate interdisciplinary teams of researchers from Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Health Sciences, Arts & Science, Engineering, Human Environmental Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.

“We wanted it to be a state-of-the-art facility, with lots of interactive areas, and a flexible, modular design,” said Michael Chippendale, interim director of the Life Sciences Center and chair of its planning committee. “We wanted the labs to be reasonably generic so there could be many different types of research going on. We also want the research in the building to be connected with related research being conducted elsewhere on campus.”

About 600 MU scientists currently work as “life sciences” researchers, in such diverse fields as molecular biology, plant genomics and veterinary oncology. Scattered across campus, many work in outdated laboratories with outdated equipment. The Life Sciences Center will allow researchers to pool their expertise in a state-of-the-art facility, using the latest equipment, to improve food, human health and the environment.

“Interdisciplinary research lets you work on real-world problems that you can’t address with a single discipline,” said Chippendale. “Scientists will be able to apply knowledge from different areas and make advances in basic science that will benefit society, or end up with a product or diagnostic tool that, if commercialized, will help society.”

An attractive place to meet and greet

When completed in 2004, the five-story Life Sciences Center will provide 234,000 gross square feet of research and instructional space at College and Rollins avenues. The building will have two wings, separated by a five-story atrium.

“We see the atrium as sort of the ‘Main Street’ of the building,” said Swanson. “We’ve built in a lot of ‘chance interaction’ spaces, where people can meet and talk. Sometimes it’s unplanned encounters that spark a new idea.”

The atrium’s first floor will have a reading room, display areas and a cafe that will be operated by Campus Dining Services. The upper floors will house offices. Open walkways will span the atrium at the upper levels and lead to the research lab corridors.

A lot of thought went into the design,” said Chippendale. “The design of the building facilitates interactivity. The offices will be cheerful places, with lots of windows, and there will be plenty of conference rooms where people can sit down and talk.”

The first floor of the wings will house three undergraduate teaching labs and two computer labs on the east side, and a 250-seat auditorium on the west. Fifty research labs will occupy the floors above.

“The labs will have walls that are easily removed so we can quickly adapt the space when new research teams move in,” said Swanson. Laboratory space allotted will depend on the flow of grant funds to the research teams. Unlike the public first-floor area, access to the labs will be restricted to those with electronic key cards.

Above the research labs, two greenhouses will top off the building.

“We’ll be able to program lights and temperatures in the greenhouses to mimic any environmental condition the researchers require,” said Doug Spellman, a PD&C facilities project manager who specializes in the mechanical engineering aspects of campus buildings.

Completing another phase of the Master Plan

The concept of this interdisciplinary research hub was hatched in 1994, when Roger Mitchell, retired dean of C A F N R, and Lester Bryant, retired dean of the School of Medicine, launched a business plan for what would become the Life Sciences Center.

"The campus master plan had always shown a potential research building in the area between Physics and Agriculture,” said Swanson.

Although the building will be the tallest in the area, it is designed to blend in with the surrounding buildings and Sanborn Field — an early example of “life sciences” research on the MU campus.

“We located the Life Sciences Center to the north side of the construction site, close to the Physics building, leaving an open expanse to the south, in order to extend the open expanse of Sanborn Field across the street,” said Swanson. “We also lined up the auditorium entrance with the north end of Virginia Avenue, as a focal point.” The building’s exterior will be stone on the lower level, with brick and precast concrete on the upper levels. The atrium will be constructed with glass and metal.

While the building’s location complies with the campus master plan, the concentration of research facilities with fume hoods in that part of campus raised questions about air quality.

“We thought we should look at the effect the Life Sciences Center would have on other buildings, especially the nearby residential areas and the Child Development Lab,” said Spellman. “We also wanted to find out if the surrounding buildings would affect air quality in the building.”

In the fall of 2000, PD&C hired a wind-flow analysis lab to study the campus. Cermak Perterka Petersen, Inc. (C P P) of Fort Collins, Colorado built a scale model of the area within a quarter-mile radius of the LSC, placed it on a turntable and used a fan to create up to 360 degrees of wind direction. Tubes running through the building models, and connected to a smoke machine below, replicated the buildings’ exhaust emitters. C P P calculated the amount and velocity of the exhaust, and the area’s prevailing winds to create realistic conditions for the model. A trace chemical in the smoke helped track where the exhaust fumes were going. In all, C P P conducted 128 separate tests and came up with positive results.

Life Sciences Center construction kickoff. Bid-opening onlookers above, row nearest camera, left to right, LSC project manager, architect Bobb Swanson, PD&C; architect Casey Cassius of B N I M of Kansas City; UM architect Bob Simmons; Vice Chancellor and Agriculture Dean Thomas Payne, Senior Associate C A F N R dean, Mike Chippendale; and B N I M architect, Mark Kohles, track bids during the proceedings. Dwight Hubert, head table, right, the LSC construction project manager, watches as Ed Drane, manager of construction contracts, read the bids. River City Construction of Peoria, Illinois, October 25, secured the contract with a construction bid of $46.3 million.

Collaboration is key to success

For a facility meant to foster collaboration among scientists, the Life Sciences Center is also a study in collaborative design. An 11-member planning committee, comprised of representatives from participating academic units, and UM and MU architects, first determined MU’s needs by studying similar facilities across the country.

“A big part of planning the Life Sciences Center was finding out how other universities have addressed these needs — and hiring a good architect who understands how to translate these needs into a building,” said Chippendale.

B N I M of Kansas City, in collaboration with Anshen & Allen of San Francisco, California, created the architectural program for the building.

Architects, lab planners and committee members visited the Danforth Center in St. Louis, the University of Illinois, the University of Nebraska, and Duke University, among others. The Levine Center at Duke, in particular, served as a model for MU’s Life Sciences Center, said Swanson.

Besides Campus Facilities’ PD&C department, other CF departments were involved in the design, maintenance, safety features and surroundings of the building (see Life Sciences Center accommodates custodial needs; Maintenance plans for future LSC upkeep; Electricity, steam and H 2 0: Vital to LSC research efforts; and Landscape Services eyes future Botanic Garden sites).

“We tried to get as much input from everybody as we could for this project,” said Swanson. “We also held town meetings for faculty and staff, and made every effort to get people involved from the beginning.”

Leading the way in life sciences

Following a September 8 ceremonial ground-breaking, construction began December 17, 2001 on MU’s largest building project to date. PD&C’s construction project manager Dwight Hubert oversees the the day-to-day construction. River City Construction of Peoria, Illinois is transforming architectural renderings into reality, completing another step in MU’s push to become a leader in life-sciences research.

“With this facility, we should rank right up there as one of the top interdisciplinary research centers in the country,” said Chippendale. “The scope of research will be broader than in most facilities because of the great diversity of programming across the life sciences at MU. A lot is already happening on this campus, and the Life Sciences Center will enhance it."