Boston, MA – The Biomedical Research & Public Health (BRPH) Building at Tufts University School of Medicine is a combination of four structures originally built between 1916 and 1929 in the hub of Boston’s clothing industry. These robust buildings were changed to laboratory space in the 1960s.
The renovations on the seventh floor of the Arnold wing will be the first in a series of interdisciplinary connectors within the research complex. The laboratory will serve the neuroscience research program, and will feature an open laboratory concept with flexible support spaces including tissue culture labs, instrumentation rooms, and an electrophysiology suite.
Located at the corner of the BRPH research complex, this location is ideally situated for easy access between adjacent wings, and will allow investigators to travel seamlessly through the entire two block research complex. The fit out of the laboratory, combined with the existing research space in adjacent wings, will create a density of research and gathering space along a common circulation path within the complex. In this way, there will be enhanced opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions along the common circulation path through collaboration spaces, shared scientific resources, lounges, conference rooms, coffee bars, pin-up and white board space.
This is an enhancement of the physical environment that will enable unstructured interactions and idea generation among the researchers.
Contractor for the project was Barr & Barr, Inc. Cannon Design is the architect.
Consultants included Schirmer Engineering, Code; Acentech, Inc., Acoustics and Ingersol Rand, Hardware.
“It was a great example of architects, administrators, engineers, facilities managers, and researchers working together to design something special…a timeless design that would speak to the research environment that the medical school aspires to,” said Erik Lustgarten, the project manager at Cannon Design. “The result will be a highly collaborative environment that will feature lab spaces designed to allow adaptability and flexibility, a plan that is designed to encourage collaboration within and outside of the suite, and an integrated approach to graphics and signage that will integrate marker boards with wall sized graphics based on reflecting the science that is being conducted in the lab.”
Debi McDonald, project principal, adds, “Many researchers have the belief that in order to get state-of-the-art research space, they need to build a new building. This newly renovated neuroscience research space in a turn-of-the-century warehouse building gives evidence that the quality of research space is as much related to engaged discussions between the design team and the researchers, and effective lab programming and planning, as it is on the proposed space in which the lab spaces are built.
The estimated completion date for the project is December of this year.