Scientific space makers

General Article
October 2, 2003

Working with scientists to build better labs gives Fred Hutchinson's design team members a window into the world of research

Curtis Bain and Lynn Perkins, members of the Facilities Planning and Construction team, pore over blueprints for new laboratory space. The team works closely with scientists to meet their requirements for optimal research labs. Photo by Todd Mcnaught

By LAUREN VANE

If you find yourself missing the brisk Seattle summers of the past, head down to the basement of the Weintraub building for a visit to Katie Peichel's fish room, where the temperature is a crisp 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Might sound a little chilly, but for the stickleback fish that live here, the climate feels like summer.

"Despite the temperature, it's kind of peaceful working down here," Peichel said, although she almost always wears a sweatshirt while working in the room.

The fish room was designed specifically for Peichel's needs by the center's Facilities Planning and Construction team. For her lab, Peichel, a Human Biology Division investigator who joined the center in January, worked with Curtis Bain, one of the seven members of the capital-projects team. Members of the team address the special requirements and technical challenges of designing lab research space and also provide expertise on office and clinic design. Putting forth a cooperative effort with many hands, the design/build team-which includes numerous outside consultants and contractors, and many center departments- do their part to create a functional work environment so that scientists can focus on what they came here to do: research.

"Our mission is clear," said Lynn Perkins, senior project manager and a registered architect. "It is to provide the physical infrastructure necessary to the practice of scientific research."

When designing a lab, the project manager works together with a researcher to determine their needs and objectives. "We try to give them what they're asking for within the constraints imposed by space, time and budget," Perkins said.

In Peichel's mind, she got everything she wanted and more. "I gave them a rough sketch of what I wanted and they took it from there," she said. "They thought of things that I didn't even think of."

For her fish room, Peichel had a unique list of requests to make the space most efficient for her research on stickleback fish, which she uses as a model to study the evolution of species. Peichel wanted 100 or more racked fish tanks, with two outlets for each tank. "It was an engineering nightmare," Peichel said. "The tanks have a lot of water weight and the racks needed to be extremely structurally supportive."

Lighting was another important factor to consider during the design process. In order to give each fish a natural life cycle, the lighting in the fish room had to be controlled to give 16 hours of daylight and 16 hours of dark. Bain worked with Peichel to install special controllable lighting that could meet the needs of the fish. Once the overhead lighting was taken care of, another problem still existed: Peichel needed a way to change the seasons in the room and make some of the fish experience a winter climate, separate from the others.

"It was a difficult problem to figure out, but I gave it to the project managers and they came back to me with a solution," Peichel said. Their answer: deli cases that would allow several tanks to be placed in an environment where temperature and lighting could be regulated separately from the rest of the room. "They thought of everything," she said.

The players and the process

After meeting with a researcher, a lab planner's job is far from done. Many people are involved in the process and there are a lot of factors for the project managers to consider. Planners often work with outside architects and engineers on the design of a particular project. Numerous consultants including contractors, electricians, mechanical contractors, casework and furniture providers, equipment vendors and others support the work. Within the center, project managers depend on the expertise of many other departments including Communications and Network Services, Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities Engineering, Accounting and Purchasing and scientific division administration. Project managers, such as Perkins and Bain, along with Mark Moran and Randy Barnsbee, coordinate all facets of the lab-design project to ensure that the final product comes together as planned.

It may sound a little stressful, but managers enjoy the varied pace and problem solving. Perkins said that working on a lab gives her "a small window on the state-of-the-art practice of scientific research."

"The people all make it a lot of fun," she said."Fred Hutchinson people are intelligent, resourceful and cooperative. When there is a problem, they immediately look for a solution."

With the diligent work of the lab-planning and construction team, Peichel's fish room is now fully functional. Peichel says she is happy with the results and grateful to be spending her time working with the fish, instead of worrying about designing her research space. "I could have spent my first six months here going to the fish store and buying lights and racks," she said. "It's a world of difference to come here and have it all taken care of."

[Lauren Vane studies journalism at Boston University. She interned this summer with Center News]

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