Healthcare Design - May 2015 - 86

patient rooms with adjacent family space. "The facility's
systems are standardized and modularized to allow
ultimate long-term flexibility and adaptability, including
interchangeable lab and clinical spaces, but the plan
grid was ultimately dictated by the model of care and
not the lab needs," Mammen says. "This meant the lab
module was a foot wider than is typical," which is not
the most efficient use of expensive lab space.
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On the other end of the spectrum, the University
of California, San Francisco's (UCSF) Smith Cardiovascular Research Building (CVRB) primarily houses
research labs, so it was the lab function that ultimately
dictated the grid. In order to make sure that the building's infrastructure was still set up to properly support
the building's healthcare component, designer SmithGroupJJR placed its integrated 8,000-square-foot
outpatient clinic as a separate element, outside of the
primary structural grid.

At each floor of the CVRB,
the elevator bank opens up
into impromptu gathering
spots with whiteboards
and comfortable seating
to encourage spontaneous
and casual interactions
and conversation.

Inside the walls
A planning grid of 11 feet by 11 feet is generally sufficient to support evolving laboratory models with various orientations. "Maintaining this planning grid can
establish a structural planning grid so no columns of
the facility interrupt the placement of laboratory casework," Vascellaro says. In other words, designers are
afforded maximum flexibility for casework placement
with no support beams running through the module.
With such heavy infrastructure requirements,
engineers often consider modular mechanical and
electrical systems. These can be easily adjusted to
accommodate changing space requirements, thereby
capturing better efficiencies, but this is dependent
upon the nature of medical research and how the labs
are set up relative to the clinical spaces, explains Andy
Snyder, principal and science/education project leader
at NBBJ (San Francisco). "If the research functions are
in the same building as the clinical ones, it's possible
to take advantage of shared MEP equipment," he says.
"But research environments sometimes need additional infrastructure to deal with pressurized compart-

science client leader at BHDP Architecture (Cincinnati). That said, there are differing requirements
for items like ventilation and daylighting levels, so
designers need to determine the facility's primary user
group-researchers versus doctors, staff, patients,
and families-and better customize the overall design
to that group.
One strategy is to separate the organization's
research and medical functions. "'Under one roof' is
a misnomer," Vascellaro says. "While proximity is important for staff heading research and clinical rounds
in a single day, facilities can be physically isolated on
common grounds."
However, some would argue that this limits opportunities for the doctors and researchers to interface
and collaborate. When answering that need with a
single building, Mammen says it's important to understand that fully optimizing the facility for both research
and healthcare functions is not physically possible, so
one use will have to be prioritized over the other.
Case in point: At St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital's Chili's Care Center, a vertically integrated
patient care and research building in Memphis, Tenn.,
the building's healthcare function was prioritized, resulting in a wide floor plan to answer the need for larger

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Healthcare Design - May 2015

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