Latest Reports

The expansion of interdisciplinary research to include an engineering component is changing the space model for academic institutions. Science facilities had already broken new ground when they blended various branches of life and physical sciences together under one roof. Adding engineering to the mix has triggered fresh thinking about a host of design standards, ranging from lab-to-lab-support ratios to building organization to the configuration of office and collaboration spaces.

The North American headquarters for EF Education First, located in the former industrial North Point area of Cambridge, serves as a modern case study of an open office workspace. Designed to house more than 1,000 employees in a completely open environment, the 300,000-sf, 10-floor office building features pod-style team zones separated by a variety of lounges, meeting rooms, private Skype™ rooms, and large community spaces, including a café, activity rooms, and an onsite restaurant bar for socializing after work.

With the second-lowest population density of any state in the US and two cows for every human, Wyoming has long been a land of wide-open spaces, except for science students at the University of Wyoming. For decades, UW students have studied science in “dingy, dark, old basement labs,” says Daniel Dale, department head and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Wyoming. But a new building has changed all of that—with active learning spaces, abundant natural light, and a new emphasis on collaboration—and increased student attendance and performance to boot.

When the administrators at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) realized their space needs were growing faster than their existing buildings could accommodate, they did something unconventional: They approached the problem as a research project. Beginning in 2012, they analyzed their clinical research space needs, reviewed their available real estate, and visited other research facilities to observe best practices.

With a portfolio of 23 research buildings ranging from 30,000 gsf to almost 800,000 gsf, the research portfolio of the University of Texas MD Anderson Center in Houston covers nearly 4.5 million gsf. Despite bringing 11 of those buildings online in the past 15 years—nearly one building per year—the researchers at MD Anderson were left wondering why, even with all those facilities, there did not seem to be enough space. This was partially due to unprecedented growth, now with close to 22,000 employees, but that didn’t fully account for the problem.