Boston Real Estate COVID Consortium is creating a toolkit of strategies for workplace design, construction, and management in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The mission of the consortium is to share knowledge relating to current industry best practices, due diligence, and adapting to changes in codes and regulatory amendments for the post-pandemic working environment.
Merrick & Company are offering a free webinar on strategies for returning to work during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The one-hour session will begin at 1:00 PM EDT on May 7, 2020.
FM:Systems is offering a webcast detailing five key steps that will enable facilities managers to prepare for the return to the workplace. Delivered by Brian Haines, Vice President of Strategy for FM:Systems, "Strategic Planning When Returning to the Workplace" will air from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM EST on May 7, 2020.
Key takeaways will include:
Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield launched the Recovery Readiness Task Force (RRTF) in April of 2020 to lead the development of best practices, products, and partnerships to prepare clients for post-pandemic recovery and the eventual return to the workplace. Drawing on innovative strategies for design, construction, facilities management, and commercial cleaning protocols, the task force will offer a toolkit with step-by-step protocols for tenants and landlords to use as they begin planning the transition back to the workplace.
FM:Systems is offering a webcast on the use of digital solutions to enhance productivity on May 14, 2020. If you would like to build a smarter workplace, optimize space utilization, and enhance employee experience, FM Systems’ strategies will enable you to leverage connected devices and applications to deliver the flexibility that your staff require. By the end of 2020, mobile workers will account for 75 percent of the total workforce.
Roughly a year and a half into a major Lean initiative, the vivarium at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has reduced its operating budget by at least 25 percent, cut overtime by more than 60 percent, and closed a 15,000-sf satellite, moving all employees into the original facility. Still a work in progress, the streamlining effort is applying a blend of Lean concepts and holistic, out-of-the-box thinking, with careful attention to both the hard and soft side of operations. Among the efficiencies instituted are a revamped cagewash schedule, staff trained in basic colony management, and the redesign of animal holding rooms so that PIs and husbandry personnel can comfortably work in the same space simultaneously.
As workplace environments continually change to accommodate the diversity of today’s employee workstyles, choosing the most appropriate furniture is an increasingly important aspect of the design process. While furniture selection may have been an afterthought in the past—a decision to be considered only after a building was constructed or renovated—many organizations now realize the value of putting furniture selection on the front burner. Furniture can impact workplace change initiatives by empowering employees, improving employee satisfaction and productivity, enhancing collaboration, and improving overall organizational efficiencies. The selection and placement of furniture—from standing desks, height-adjustable tables, room dividers, storage space, and myriad seating options—are now being aligned with an organization’s objectives.
Research into the causes of and potential treatments for neurodegenerative diseases has always been inherently multidisciplinary, combining basic sciences with numerous medical specialties. At the same time, neuroscience research requires a variety of targeted specialized spaces. Facilities that support that research, therefore, must be designed to accommodate both the interdisciplinary and the specialized. “As we approach these projects, we need to have a completely open mindset and expect the unexpected,” says Alex Munoz, SmithGroup princpal and senior lab planner. “The facilities must be designed with flexible standards that are both highly specialized for current research and capable of being relevant in the future.”
Corporate and academic research institutions are shifting towards a more interdisciplinary model for designing new lab buildings, with the goal of accelerating discovery times and increasing innovation. This means creating more open, team-based laboratories, with shared equipment and collaboration areas that increase interaction between scientists from different disciplines while optimizing space and resources. Two recent case studies illustrating this approach include the new 840,000-sf Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, Mass., and a new 316,000-sf academic science facility at Towson University near Baltimore, Md. While one project is corporate and the other academic, much of the design and programming for both projects is focused around mapping out the research activities needed to get to the desired outcome.
The new 100,000-sf AstraZeneca site in South San Francisco, located in the Cove at Oyster Point complex, is the company’s first facility where open offices and labs are seamlessly integrated with each other to promote increased mobility and interaction among the researchers. Housing around 400 employees, the building brings together staff from AstraZeneca’s Technology Innovation & Delivery Excellence (TIDE) unit, as well as subsidiaries MedImmune, Acerta Pharma, and Pearl Therapeutics into one state-of-the-art facility at the center of the Bay Area’s vibrant biotech and technology sector.
The University at Albany, State University of New York (UAlbany) has developed a rigorous new process for allocating space to improve utilization, decrease operating costs, and create more collaborative research environments capable of attracting high-quality researchers and students. The initiative was triggered in part by a growing influx of students and faculty and the creation of two new colleges—the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity; and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The new space allocation and management process helps reduce the role politics plays in decision-making and better aligns facility use with university goals. The basis for the process is an understanding that campus space is a valuable limited resource that should be strategically deployed to achieve specific measurable goals, just like staffing or capital.
The University of Missouri (MU) will eliminate 750,000 sf of education and general facilities space by 2023 in order to reduce costs and improve overall space quality and utilization. The initiative will allow the university to save approximately $153 million in deferred maintenance, capital renewal, and plant adaption costs, as well as about $5 million in annual operating costs. It’s an ambitious undertaking, considering that the 1,200-acre main campus in Columbia, Mo., has 7 million sf of education and general facility space spread across 185 major buildings. To meet the 10 percent reduction goal over the next four years, the university will strategically demolish, divest, relocate, and rebuild a data-driven selection of aging or under-utilized buildings.
Almost every field of endeavor has been supercharged in recent years by the advent of “big data”—the ability of computers to process and analyze large data sets to gather insights. The business of creating student spaces on campuses is no different. June Hanley and Scott Foral of HDR have used big data in several projects, and offer some wisdom on how to turn raw data into actionable results.
Churn—it’s the constant, costly reality of research space utilization, with a price tag that’s often underestimated. Also underestimated? The opportunity for organizations to realize cost savings, operational streamlining, and overall efficiencies amid the inevitable swapping of research teams and space during renovations and equipment relocations, asserts Mark Allen, AIA, architect and principal at Wilson HGA; and Jeanne MacLellan, principal of Dowling Houy. “Even with a client who’s in the midst of a renovation, we know that, in three to four years, they are going to be renovating again,” explains MacLellan. “We’re not eliminating churn and its inefficiencies; we’re maximizing options now that will minimize its impact down the road.”
