Pfizer's New Laboratory Paradigm
Jay Hallinan, The S/L/A/M Collaborative
Paul Janssenswillen, Pfizer
Design of research facilities traditionally follows guidelines and best practices that serve the competitive needs of the era in which they are built. Through successive generations, previously established "current best design" guidelines become outdated, are inappropriate for the time, or evolve.
Pfizer has recently engaged in redefining and articulating its future global strategic goals. As one of its initiatives, its global housing inventory has been reevaluated within the context of a new laboratory design paradigm. This presentation provides an overview of this new paradigm and how it is being applied in planning for existing and new laboratory facilities.
Pfizer Neuroscience Group's pending move from Groton, Connecticut, to 700 Main Street in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, this summer is a case study for implementing new planning strategies in an existing, leased facility. 700 Main Street is a temporary home, however, as a new facility is currently being built on the adjacent lot at 610 Main Street, which utilizes the cutting edge of design for optimal use and flexibility. 700 Main Street is a stepping stone in Neuroscience's transition to its future destination at 610 Main Street in both physical and cultural ways.
Depending on specific circumstances, the lengths to which new planning and design ideas can be achieved vary, but the objectives are always the same:
- Maximize the overall utilization of the facility.
- Consolidate operations to divest themselves of redundant or under-utilized space and equipment.
- Reduce overall facility "footprint."
- Reduce operating costs wherever possible.
- Reduce leased spaces through consolidation of operations to owned facilities.
- Optimize the functional value of leased facilities at minimal renovation costs, and of new facilities through flexible and sustainable design.
We can better understand the method and result of current laboratory design strategies by accommodating the same science group in a minimally renovated, existing facility that had cutting-edge design for its time, and a newly built facility that utilizes the most advanced thinking in laboratory construction.
Biographies:
Jay Hallinan is an architect and laboratory planner at the S/L/A/M Collaborative. After receiving his Masters of Architecture degree from Tulane University, he has spent the past two decades focused primarily on the design of buildings for science. Mr. Hallinan has been embedded as a full-time contractor in the facilities solutions department at Pfizer in Groton, Connecticut, for the past year. He has been assisting Pfizer's strategic initiative to consolidate facilities in the Northeast region.
Paul Janssenswillen is a design professional with more than 20 years of experience in the life science technology service sector. He has a proven track record of generating and implementing ideas to streamline business while managing successful teams. As global research and development (R&D) lead of Pfizer's Innovative Workplace Strategies, Mr. Janssenswillen's responsibilities include "Right Sizing" Pfizer's R&D facility and site network to match their strategic needs and global re-structuring, implementing Advanced Workplace office and laboratory solutions to increase the company's facility flexibility, and value propositioning with the goal of saving Pfizer's Global Procurement and Operations $100 million over the next three years.