Designing Within a Historical Campus Character While Shooting for LEED® Platinum

Paul Leef, University of Colorado at Boulder
Matt Meyer, LEED AP, JE Dunn Construction

The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate a methodogy for approaching flexible research laboratory design within an historical campus context while still achieving aggressive sustainability goals. Through the example of the new University of Colorado at Boulder's Systems Biotechnology Building, the presenters will illustrate their approach to flexible research design, where 50 percent of the researchers were yet to be hired, but the design solution had to meet researcher needs, sustainability goals, and define an architectural character for this new East Campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The presentation team will describe its approach to the utilization of flexible laboratory design and a collaborative design process in the achievement of the university's goals and objectives for this exciting new facility. The presentation will utilize aspects from the University of Colorado Boulder Systems Biotechnology and other flexible laboratory models to illustrate aspects of the design process utilized by the team creating a new campus standard for laboratory design.

The University of Colorado at Boulder's Systems Biotechnology Building had several unique goals that necessitated a flexible and collaborative approach to the project.

1. Meet the needs of undefined researchers well into the future.
2. Develop an architectural character for a new East Campus of the University that reflected the historical existing campus.
3. Achieve LEED Gold certification.

The team worked diligently with a diversity of university representatives, from shop personnel to a Noble Laureate, to achieve their goals and to push them beyond their expectations. This project is now pushing for obtaining LEED Platinum.

To achieve the LEED Platinum certification the Systems Biotechnology Building has been planned around several creative approaches to managing research spaces and minimizing energy consumption within the various functional systems of the building. From collecting recyclables to high efficiency exhaust systems every possible energy saving initiative was discussed, explored, and incorporated within the design and construction of this building.

The Systems Biotechnology Building is designed around a socially interactive main street of research neighborhoods with faculty offices and groups of research modules. Each neighborhood provides flexible, wet and dry bench laboratory modules with adjacent support spaces for specialized functions. The facility provides additional specialized shared support cores for such functions as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), spectroscopy, tissue culture, etc., scattered among the research neighborhoods. Finally, the building is a teaching environment with teaching spaces, collaboration areas, and social interactive spaces.

Biographies:

The first LEED-accredited campus architect for Colorado University (CU)-Boulder, Paul Leef assumed responsibilities as campus architect and director of planning, design and construction in November, 2007. With over 25 years of experience in facilities design, he served previously as campus architect at the Colorado School of Mines and assistant Health Sciences Center architect at the University of Virginia. While in graduate school at the University of Virginia, he lived on the West Range, designed by Thomas Jefferson.

Working with a team of highly qualified professionals on staff, Mr. Leef promotes sustainable planning and design practices to conserve future resources, while providing stewardship of CU- Boulder's rich architectural heritage and image of excellence. His office oversees an active capital program valued at approximately a half-billion dollars, and is developing a ten year facilities master plan that implements the vision of the Flagship 2030 strategic plan for the campus. He is a member of the AIA, AUA, and SCUP.

Matt Meyer is a senior project manager for JE Dunn Construction's Life Sciences Group in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Meyer holds a Bachelor of Science in construction management from Colorado State University and is a LEED Accredited Professional. Mr. Meyer has more than 23 years of experience and is responsible for the planning, cost estimating, construction, and commissioning of life science, laboratory, and hospital facilities for entities such as Sandia National Laboratory (Albuquerque, New Mexico), Amgen (Longmont, Colorado), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Fort Collins, Colorado), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Areas of specialty include health care, research laboratories, biotech, BSL2, and BSL3. Mr. Meyer is a current member of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE).