R & D Magazine awards PAYETTE project Special Mention

Judging has wrapped for the 47th annual R & D Magazine Laboratory of the Year competition. PAYETTE is pleased to announce the Harvard University Sherman Fairchild Renovation has been awarded a Special Mention in the category of Renovated Lab of the Year.

Following Harvard University’s creation of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department, a new home was sought. Ultimately, the rebirth of the Sherman Fairchild Biochemistry Building was chosen as their new home. The Sherman Fairchild Biochemistry Building was a groundbreaking building at its completion in 1981 as one of the first buildings for biochemistry in the world, but it was in desperate need of renovation. In the spirit of the original building’s innovation, the renovation was to reestablish the laboratory of the future for Harvard in terms of its design and sustainability.

The new laboratory design for Sherman Fairchild focused on a dramatic increase in density while changing the fundamental relationship between bench-based laboratory space and equipment-based laboratory space. Support spaces have traditionally been located within the center of a building in a series of rooms without natural daylight and disconnected from the bench area. The new design for Sherman Fairchild radically altered this relationship by locating an entire zone of support spaces (primarily tissue culture) along the exterior wall and promoted as much daylight as possible to penetrate deep into the center of the building. An additional support zone was established in the center of the building which alternated between open cross corridors connecting the entire width of the building and smaller support rooms which did not benefit from a connection with natural daylight. The open corridors included shared freezer space and shared bench areas.

The renovation for Sherman Fairchild needed to simultaneously develop a prototypical laboratory environment for the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department, but also set the standard for environmental responsibility in laboratories at Harvard. The design included multiple strategies at a building level, but also at a user level to achieve the highest level of recognition from the USGBC.

The Sherman Fairchild Laboratory Renovation achieved LEED Platinum Certification. Achieving 95 points out of the 110 possible, this project currently holds the highest LEED points for any research lab in the world.

PAYETTE’s previous Lab of the Year recognition includes: Princeton University, High Honors 2012, Columbia University, Lab of the Year 2009, University of Pittsburgh, Special Mention 2007, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Renovated Lab of the Year 2005, Middlebury College, Lab of the Year 2000 and Duke University, Lab of the Year 1996.

Related:
Harvard University: Sherman Fairchild Renovation
Energy Savings: Sherman Fairchild Renovation