Building 6—4th Floor Lab Renovation
The new Freedman Lab in Building 6 supports research focused on three vital areas of contemporary physics: advancing quantum information science, creating and understanding new magnetic materials, and designing new emergent materials. With extensive hazardous chemicals, the renovation managed risks and environments with glove boxes, hoods, gas cabinets and storage systems. Limiting scope creep into roofing, the complex mechanical system was designed and coordinated to use only existing roof penetrations.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building 6—4th Floor Laboratory Renovation
Building 4—4th Floor Laboratory Renovation
Project Statistics
LOCATION
Cambridge, MA / United States
completed
Building 6: 2021
Building 4: 2022
TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE
Building 6: 18,385 GSF
Building 4: 4,500 GSF
program components
Building 6: Chemistry Research
Building 4: Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
TEAM
James H. Collins, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP
Principal-in-Charge
Todd Sloane, AIA
Project Manager
David Pawlak, AIA
Architect
Rebecca Sturgeon, AIA
Architect
Building 4—4th Floor Lab Renovation
The Building 4 Level 4 Renovation in MIT’s Main Group creates new high-performance labs for the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). The researchers who inhabit these spaces focus on deep earth history, studying past climate changes in anticipation of future ones and the search for life on Mars. With this in mind, we developed a complex space program that ranged from basic wet lab, to trace metals research, and high-performance mass spectrometry. Adding such disparate programs together in one wing of the Main Group was made possible through harvesting an abandoned linear skylight, which created an opportunity for MEP distribution while also bringing natural light into an otherwise windowless wing in the Main Group. In addition to enabling the project technically, this protected the historic views from Killian Court as required by the Cambridge Historic Commission.
