Designing a New Lab? Choosing the Right AEC Partner Could Be Your Most Important Decision
By: Michelle Gangel, AIA, Architect and R&D Practice Lead at CRB
With ambitious business objectives and substantial capital investment on the line, kicking off a lab design project can be challenging.
The right Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) partner will shrink those challenges to a manageable size, helping you establish a successful lab that meets the needs of your business, your end users, and the patients whose lives may be impacted by your breakthrough research.
CHOOSING THE BEST AEC FIRM FOR THE JOB
Q: How should lab managers build a shortlist of AEC firms to interview?
A: Look for firms that specialize in lab design.
Google “AEC firms” and you’ll get millions of search results. With so many to choose from, how can lab managers quickly weed out unsuitable options and identify the best firms to interview?
The key is to narrow your search by eliminating AEC firms that distribute their expertise across a broad range of building types.
These generalist firms may be very good at projects that share common architectural principles, like libraries, offices, or shopping centers, but designing a lab is a unique challenge that requires equally unique expertise.
Your AEC partner needs to understand not only the science that goes on inside your lab, but also how that science informs your lab’s structural, spatial, and mechanical design. They also need to be familiar with emerging trends in lab design (to help you maximize your return on this significant capital investment) and the principles of Good Laboratory Practice or GLP (to position your lab to deliver safe, reliable outcomes). That level of specialization only comes from a long track record of designing lab-specific projects.
Q: What should lab managers look for during their interviews with AEC firms?
A: Finding a partner that you’ll enjoy working with is as important as finding one with the right qualifications. Here are three questions that may help.
1. Is this AEC firm thinking about the future of lab design?
Only one thing is certain about the Life Sciences industry—it’s going to change. Already, advances in automation and robotics are transforming lab operations. Meanwhile, emerging lab equipment is trending smaller, which is changing the spatial requirements of the lab; new equipment also tends to generate more heat, which means labs of the future will need more substantial infrastructure to maintain the required environmental conditions.
Instead of relying only on past benchmarks, a strong AEC firm will help you keep up with these changes by looking ahead to your future business needs and designing a lab that’s flexible and adaptable enough to get you there.
2. Is this AEC firm considering what’s outside of the lab, as well as what’s in it?
During your interviews with prospective AEC partners, ask for project examples that demonstrate care for the working environment surrounding the lab: collaboration zones, administrative areas, breakrooms, access to natural light, and other amenities.
A good AEC partner will understand that a healthy ecosystem plays an equally important role in helping you to attract top talent, retain existing employees, and accelerate scientific discovery.
3. Is this AEC firm a good personality fit?
Your project will proceed much more smoothly if you choose a partner who you “vibe with,” to borrow a popular term—in other words, someone who strikes you as an empathetic, engaged listener and a strong collaborator. Give these considerations at least as much weight as a firm’s technical qualifications.
BioLabs, a national shared lab and office space company, partnered with CRB to design and construct its 10th location in the United States. The 37,000-square-foot life science coworking facility offers flexible laboratory space, shared and private, along with office space for early-stage ventures.
Photography Credit: Randy Braley Photography/CRB
PLANNING FOR A SUCCESSFUL KICKOFF MEETING
Q: What should lab managers do to prepare for the kickoff meeting?
A: Build internal alignment around this project’s objectives.
Preparation for the kickoff meeting begins in the weeks before it takes place, and its success hinges on how well you and your team understand what you need from your capital investment—and what you need to avoid.
With that in mind, take some time before your project kickoff meeting to answer questions such as:
Why are you doing this project?
Get clear on your business case, which will guide you and your AEC partner as you navigate the many decisions and potential tradeoffs ahead.
What are your project constraints?
Capture any constraints (cost considerations, approved scope, etcetera) in writing. This level of transparency will help your AEC firm manage your project appropriately, avoiding the costly rework required to “walk back” a design that’s not aligned with your budget.
What do your end users and other stakeholders need?
Think through your processes and give your end users a voice as you prepare to kick off your project. Ask current operators about workarounds they’ve developed in their current lab which they’d like to leave behind, or details they’ve seen in other labs that they liked—or that they didn’t.
The earlier you communicate these requests, however minor they may seem, the more opportunity you’ll give your AEC firm to incorporate them into your lab design from day one.
Q: What can lab managers expect at the kickoff meeting?
A: Your AEC firm will use this meeting to understand your project from a business perspective and the perspective of its end users.
Every AEC firm will plan and manage the kickoff meeting differently, but a typical experience may look something like this:
Steering Committee meeting:
The project’s whole steering committee meets, including key decision-makers and end users from your team. The goal is to align a mission statement and vision of success for this project.
Department or User Group meetings:
Project leaders from the AEC firm will then meet with individual end users to better understand their workflow, their current pain points, and what they need from their new lab.
Wrapping up the kickoff meeting:
The steering committee then reconvenes to consolidate insights and build consensus around what was shared in the individual user group meetings. Before adjourning, they define the next steps.
This kickoff experience often culminates in a project charter (or a similar document) which summarizes the project’s business case and defines its schedule, scope, costs, and other key parameters. Going forward, this charter will help project teams manage uncertainty, resolve conflicts, and pressure-test every decision against the project’s overall vision.
Photography Credit: Connie Zhou Photography/CRB
Our team provided design services for Amicus Therapeutics. The research work is the convergence of technical laboratories, offices, and amenity spaces. The design creates spaces that connect science, people, and purpose.
MAKING KEY PROJECT DECISIONS
As your project begins in earnest, all of your hard work to choose the right AEC firm and develop open lines of communication with them will pay off. You’re well-positioned to tackle even the most complex decisions, such as:
Q: Should you renovate an existing building shell, or build a new facility from the ground up?
A: Your AEC firm can help you navigate the pros and cons of complex decisions like this one, using your business plan as a compass.
If you have an AEC partner who deeply understands both your business drivers and the realities enabling scientific discovery from a facility perspective, you can tackle every project decision, large and small, with confidence.
In the case of choosing between a greenfield project or a building renovation, your AEC partner will help you examine each option through the lens of your business case. If speed-to-market is important to your business, for example, renovating an existing shell may be your most suitable option.
That means sacrificing a degree of control over your facility’s layout, though—especially if you’re considering an office conversion. Office buildings often present many challenges when looking to repurpose for lab use: modules are typically smaller than bench lab modules, which could mean contending with inconvenient column spacing, inadequate floor-to-floor height, or an HVAC system that’s not suitable to your needs. With these considerations in play, is a renovation still your best option?
With the right AEC partner, you can explore mission-critical questions like these and reach the right decision.
BOTTOM LINE: TO DESIGN THE RIGHT LAB, START WITH THE RIGHT AEC PARTNER
Like all large business investments, success often depends on having the right people involved—and for labs, few investments rival a new capital project in terms of scale. By choosing the right AEC partner, you and your team can make sure that investment generates value long into the future.
Michelle Gangel, AIA, Architect and R&D Practice Lead at CRB
Photography Credit: CRB