Vivarium

The successful decarbonization of labs and other critical science environments to increase energy efficiency, occupant safety, and annual savings requires a goal-oriented project team with the cultural mindset to adopt effectual technology/engineering processes, procurement strategies, and incentive-based outcomes. Science and engineering facilities often encounter substantial obstacles, such as cost restraints, safety issues, restrictive regulations, and tight deadlines, when completing the massive energy transition necessary to decarbonize their labs. 

Barnard College is constructing the Roy & Diana Vagelos Science Center in New York to foster excellence in STEM education, innovation, and scholarship. Representing an investment of approximately $240 million, the expansion and renovation will transform the existing Altschul Hall into a modern hub for innovative teaching and research. The 169,000-sf structure will house all of Barnard’s bench sciences, including the departments of biology, chemistry, environmental science, neuroscience and behavior, and physics and astronomy. 

Ohio University began construction in January of 2025 on the $75 million Heritage Translational Research Center (HTRC) in Athens. Designed by Perkins&Will and DesignGroup, the 80,000-sf facility will consolidate laboratories and operations currently dispersed across campus, creating a collaborative ecosystem for clinical innovation. The four-story structure will provide bench space for translational biomedical research, as well as labs and support spaces for population health and clinical research.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is building a $105 million health sciences building for the School of Pharmacy and the School of Nursing. Designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative and Christner Architects, the 176,000-sf facility will offer teaching and research labs, a vivarium, and modern classrooms and study areas. As well as administrative offices, the three-story structure will accommodate programs in pharmacogenomics, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, and microbiology.

Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), home to North America’s largest baboon population dedicated to research, has opened a new primate research facility focused on animal welfare, human safety, and operational efficiency as guiding principles. The new Animal Care Complex (ACC) includes three modular breeding and holding facilities, each with a capacity of up to 300 animals of multiple species. The spacious facility has five indoor rooms which range from 400 to 800 sf, and outdoor yards as big as 5,500 sf. 

Missouri University of Science and Technology is planning to construct the Bioplex, a $130 million facility for advanced research and education in life sciences, biomedicine, and biomedical engineering. ZGF Architects is partnering with Christner Architects to design the 128,000-gsf structure, which represents the final phase of the Havener Arrival Complex. The multidisciplinary building will provide lab environments for 24 research teams, including wet bench labs and associated support spaces, as well as an ABSL-2 vivarium.

The vision of biomedical research as a collective effort is resoundingly clear in the $237.5 million Pelotonia Research Center, the first building to be completed in the 350-plus-acre Carmenton district on the campus of The Ohio State University (Ohio State) in Columbus. Opened in May 2023, the center integrates almost 100,000 sf of wet labs, 25,000 sf of computational labs, and 20,000 sf of core labs in a single facility designed to host interdisciplinary collaborations and public-private initiatives that focus on solving some of the most critical health challenges. With life science as the backbone of the research endeavor, current projects range from modeling cancer progressions to 3D printing of patient-specific anatomic models. 

Allentown, a premier provider of animal housing solutions, is partnering with The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) to launch a revolutionary home-cage mouse monitoring system powered by AI and machine learning (ML). This strategic collaboration is designed to accelerate preclinical research and improve the translatability of preclinical readouts to clinical applications.

The Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health in San Antonio illustrates the pivotal role location plays in enhancing the success of an internationally recognized research program. The Institute previously occupied two buildings at a research park 23 miles from the university’s main campus. University administrators wanted to collocate all research on the same campus to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and interaction, with proximity to all clinical research activities, and to promote efficiency and the shared use of resources. 

The decreasing amount of time researchers spend in their labs is changing research facility design and space allocation, with an increased need for lab support space, a more significant reliance on core facilities, the creation of additional write-up and data analysis environments, and the purposeful inclusion of collaboration spaces.

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is constructing the $117 million Science and Technology Innovation Center (SciTech) to provide dynamic environments for hands-on discovery. Designed by BWBR Architects, the 134,560-gsf building will accommodate programs in biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology, as well as supporting related courses in pre-engineering, biotechnology, and neuroscience.