When scientists move into the new Life Sciences Institute (LSI) building later this month, they won’t have any choice but to collaborate with their colleagues. Although the building is massive, at six stories tall and the length of a football field, it is designed to bring researchers together.
“There are very few walls. People will literally be bumping into each other, seeing what others are working on,” says Liz Barry, managing director of the LSI. “We’re hoping that the building enhances conversation so that people will sit down and talk science.”
Scientists will share equipment, making the building “an efficient way to do science,” Barry says. The open labs mean that a group of scientists will only need, for example, one centrifuge to share among themselves instead of each researcher requiring one.
The building design is central to the mission of the LSI, a new University unit that is designed to break down walls—literally and figuratively. The building’s many collaborative meeting spaces and sense of openness reflect the goal of researchers from various fields working together to create new therapies, drugs and preventive health measures.
“The labs have to interact,” says Jim Alford, director of operations for the institute. “The building really forces people to run into each other and talk about their science.”
The top two floors have similar layouts, with four open laboratory areas on each. These areas, known as “quads,” are designed to accommodate 30 researchers. Floors three and four have similar designs, with modifications for the chemistry area on four and for administrative offices on three.
On the second floor are a loading dock, air handling units and an IT server. The first floor is the home to a small animal vivarium.
The $100 million institute building was funded in 1999, Barry says. “It is now operating on those initial start-up funds,” she says. “Once we get underway with research in the building, our goal is for the institute to be self-supporting.”
The building literally is at the intersection of the central and medical campuses with its location along Washtenaw Avenue and Palmer Drive. The geography is appropriate, given the research focuses of the institute, particularly genomics and proteomics; molecular and cellular biology; and structural, chemical and computational biology.
The campus also will include the Biomedical Science Research Building; an L-shaped, four-story Undergraduate Science Instruction Center made up of classrooms and teaching labs; an 1,100-space parking deck on Palmer Drive; and The Commons, with offices, conference space, and retail and dining facilities, including a food court.
As for the LSI building itself, Alford says the most important aspect is not the bricks and mortar.
“It’s the scientists we’re able to recruit,” Alford says, including the nine hired so far. “The critical thing is to make sure this building functions properly for the scientists.”
