The 2002 master plan for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Quissett Campus called for relocating parking and roads to the site perimeter as much as possible, creating new gathering zones at the property’s core. Research needs would be met by two lab buildings: the Marine Research Facility (B) and Biogeochemistry Building/Watson Laboratory (A), plus an extension (E)
to an existing energy plant (F). Plan: Ellenzweig/Steven Stimson Associates.Click to enlarge.
The Project: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Biogeochemistry Research Building/Stanley W. Watson Laboratory (BGC) and the Marine Research Facility (MRF), Woods Hole, Mass. Three facilities designed as an ensemble project, encompassing the two-story BGC facility (35,600 ft2); two-story MRF (31,600 ft2); and a central energy plant expansion (7,700 ft2). All buildings also include mechanical penthouses. $26 million combined construction costs.
This project received a High Honors citation in the 2007 Lab of the Year competition for its overall quality, especially for its responsiveness to its unusual setting and mission.
The Users: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is the world’s largest private, nonprofit ocean research, engineering, and education organization. Research disciplines are organized into five main departments: applied ocean physics and engineering; biology; geology and geophysics; marine chemistry and geochemistry; and physical oceanography.
The space between the central energy plant (right) and MRF defines a new vehicular access court servicing the MRF labs as well as the needs of the facilities staff. Click to enlarge.
The BGC/Watson Laboratory provides interdisciplinary research and support space for 10 senior scientists and 35 associates in the departments of biology and marine chemistry and geochemistry. The burgeoning field of biogeochemistry investigates chemical interactions of living things with rocks, sediments, seawater, the sea floor, and hydrothermal vents.
The MRF consolidates previously scattered WHOI investigative teams working in the field of marine mammal and ecological research, including eight senior scientists and 45 associates.
The Schedule: The design is based on recommendations of a master plan completed for WHOI’s Quissett Campus in 2002 by Ellenzweig and Stephen Stimson Associates. Construction commenced spring 2004; occupancy December 2005.
The Goals: Founded in 1930, WHOI operates multiple research, education, and administrative facilities on Cape Cod. The Quissett Campus spans about 30 acres of facilities on a heavily wooded 124-acre property, and is host to WHOI’s largest research building, the 1974 Clark lab, and five other lab buildings. When the need for new research facilities became clear, the client decided to commission a new master plan that would reorganize the sloping site, remedying some issues that had arisen from piecemeal construction over many decades.
The new plan called for a car-free zone at the campus core, linking far-flung buildings with pedestrian pathways and gathering spaces and moving parking and primary roadways to site perimeters. In what would turn out to be a key decision for success, planners recommended a two-building scheme rather than the single large lab facility originally envisioned by WHOI. Creating the paired facilities plus the accompanying central plant offered a more sensitive response to the existing landscape, and also an opportunity to create new focal points and communal areas for the entire campus.
The client requested that the design be as sustainable as possible, in keeping with its mission. The new buildings were intended to be distinct but compatible in design.
Specific goals for the BGC/Watson Laboratory building included providing both wet and dry lab environments suitable to the developing new field of biogeochemistry, uniting previously scattered researchers. The MRF needed to provide consolidation space with labs more tailored to the researchers’ needs than existing facilities could provide. Features include wet labs, dry labs, instrumentation labs, and labs for research with non-living animal subjects, including necropsy and scanning labs. An instrument development shop was also a key component of the client’s requests.
The MRF’s marine necropsy facility includes a monorail for moving large specimens, down-draft necropsy tables, and adjacent cold room, freezer, and scanning facilities.Click to enlarge.
The energy plant, an expansion of an existing physical plant, provides improved capacity for the entire campus. Addressing frequent power surges and outages with upgraded electrical capabilities was a primary goal, as was installation of more energy-efficient HVAC equipment.
The Solutions: The new MRF is a two-story rectangular facility that links upper and lower levels of the campus, and is connected by a short wing at the west to the expanded utility plant. A passageway bridges an existing road, dividing the lower floor of the lab into two sections. A service vehicle yard is formed between the lab and the expanded utility plant, providing a key staging area for facility operations as well as animal research subjects, such as beached whales, coming into the MRF.
The lower level of the MRF supports multiple specialty labs, as well as a large mechanical room (isolated from the rest of the floor by the roadway that bisects the building). Functions on the lower level include a large marine necropsy lab with associated freezer and cold room, a scanning room, and a staging area for animal specimens. An overhead monorail serves all spaces within the necropsy and scanning suites, making it possible to move large specimens without employee injuries from lifting.
Also on this floor are an acoustical engineering lab, sample processing lab, and instrument development lab—important because unique sea-going instrumentation is often required by the MRF’s science team. A second monorail system helps staff move heavy equipment between the instrument development lab and vehicles in the exterior staging area.
Marine Research Facility, lower level, and central energy plant (top left). Key: 1) marine necropsy facility; 2) freezer room; 3) cold room; 4) scanning room;
5) optical lab; 6) sample processing lab;
7) acoustical engineering lab; 8) instrument development lab; 9) office; 10) entry; 11) break room; 12) staging; 13) vehicular service yard; 14) mechanical; A) boiler room;
B) chillers. All floorplans: Ellenzweig. Click to enlarge.
Marine Research Facility, upper level, and central energy plant (top left). Key: 1) acoustic communications lab; 2) imaging lab; 3) histology lab; 4) fish ecology lab; 5) forensic dry lab;
6) cleanroom; 7) mass spec lab; 8) marine ecology lab; 9) offices; 10) conference room; 11) biology department archives; 12) lounge; 13) main entry; A) boiler room; B) chiller room;
C) cooling towers.Click to enlarge.
The MRF’s second level has a single central corridor with labs on the north side of the building and investigator and associate offices on the south. Lab functions on this floor include imaging, histology, fish ecology, forensics, mass spec, marine ecology, acoustic communications, and a cleanroom. A large conference room, lounge, and archive room are situated at the eastern end of the building, next to the main entrance. The long corridor between offices and labs is broken by inset entries to office suites; the entryways are furnished with tables, chairs, and markerboards to foster the sense of neighborhood and mitigate the linearity of the hallway.
Fixed casework is common in this facility, incorporating a mix of maple wood and stainless steel depending on function. These choices suited the client’s research patterns as well as budget. Most of the labs are specialized rather than generic, reflecting the differences between WHOI’s needs and those of, say, a general biomedical research lab.
In labs such as this MRF fish ecology lab, where salt water is to be used extensively, the highest grade of stainless steel was specified for benches and fittings. Scavenger exhausts are provided for localized fume extraction at microscopy stations where formalin is used.Click to enlarge.
The BGC/Watson Lab is a two-story building situated to the south and east of the MRF. It, too, is primarily rectangular, with one curved façade that offers views across a new pedestrian plaza to the MRF. A partial basement level is built into a hillside on the southwest end of the facility.
The general organization of the BGC consists of a rectangular lab block, with offices across a primary corridor in the curved portion of the building. A two-story volume at the north end houses a main-floor staff lounge and a
second-story conference room.
The daylit labs are perimeter-mounted and include a series of support zones toward the building core. Most labs are fairly open, and include light-colored wood casework with epoxy or laminate tops. Because a great deal of research variability is not anticipated, most of the casework is fixed. A lower-level geochemistry cleanroom features all-plastic casework, including service fittings, ceiling tiles and grid, and light fixtures.
The partial basement level houses several specialty labs where natural light is not desirable, including controlled-temperature rooms for the study of open salt water samples. Plastic-coated shelving and waterproof outlet covers and surface electrical conduit were specified for corrosion control in these spaces. At-grade staging and vehicle access facilitates the movement of samples to these labs.
The Biogeochemistry Research Building/Watson Laboratory has office areas in a curved building element that faces the MRF across a plaza and meadow. The aesthetic vocabulary of unfinished cedar, concrete, and zinc—plus ample amounts of high-efficiency glazing—is common to all three new buildings.Click to enlarge.
This lab, designed for study of salt water samples in the BGC building’s partial basement level, is equipped with plastic-coated shelving and plastic conduit and outlet covers to resist corrosion. Click to enlarge.
For economy, many of the new WHOI labs combine epoxy resin and plastic laminate countertops. Like most of the project’s labs, this biology area in the building receives ample natural light and has great landscape views.Click to enlarge.
The Highlights: The BGC/Watson Lab, MRF, and central plant extension are low-rise facilities notable for their human scale and harmony with their environment. All primary exterior materials—white cedar siding, concrete walls, and zinc panels—were chosen because they were natural and minimally processed. All were left unfinished to allow graceful weathering over time. The new “campus core” open area created by the siting of the two buildings is planned as a natural meadow, with plantings of native species that will encourage wildlife habitation.
Interior finishes for both buildings are simple and airy, including cedar paneling that matches the exterior, and light-colored walls, flooring, and furniture. Common areas such as break and conference rooms feature full-height windows, making the landscape a key component of the occupants’ experience of the buildings. Both facilities have researcher lounges that open onto paved patios, allowing meals to be taken outdoors in good weather.
Despite the facilities’ modest demeanor, they include modern sustainability features, including high-performance insulating exterior glass. South-facing windows have architectural sunscreens to reduce solar gain. Office windows are operable, letting users take full advantage of the fresh breezes and pleasant views. Most building lighting is controlled by motion sensors for energy efficiency. Lab exhaust includes wet and dry scrubbers to avoid undesirable emissions—a choice that exceeds local code requirements.
The physical plant expansion provides the campus with new electrical systems, new energy-efficient boiler and chiller systems, and new wastewater treatment facilities for lab and sanitary waste. The plant is cedar-clad and has large windows, making it seem an integral part of the campus design.
The marine necropsy facility is perhaps the most unusual research suite in the two-building complex. WHOI believes it is the world’s first such facility to combine features such as height-adjustable down-draft necropsy tables, a monorail for moving large specimens, and an integral CT scanning suite. The design allows examination of a wide range of species, from small birds to 1,800-lb. small whales.
The Results: WHOI scientists praise the design solution for these new buildings and the campus reorganization as a whole. “The necropsy and scanning facility was beautifully designed, and acts as a magnet for classes and for a diverse set of people involved with marine mammal stranding, from regulators to vets,” says Peter L. Tyack, senior scientist in the biology department. “Even though I am not directly involved in this work, at least once a month someone comes upstairs to notify us of some amazing activity or result from that lab, and when we go down, there is often an impressive nucleus of colleagues gathered. This facility is gaining a national reputation—there is nothing of its kind elsewhere.”
The lab block of the MRF faces southwest and includes architectural sunshades to mitigate heat gain. A partial basement level includes labs where natural light is not preferred. Click to enlarge.
Senior scientist and marine chemist Daniel J. Repeta says that the interactive features of the BGC/Watson Laboratory really work to promote collaboration, unlike so-called collaborative spaces in other lab buildings he has occupied. “The hallways of Woods Hole laboratories are dull, uninviting spaces, piled high on both sides with old equipment,” he says. “But the Watson Laboratory is different. The public spaces are beautiful and inviting, and most of my discussions with colleagues have in fact taken place in the hallways, and many of these have led to new ideas and new projects. The building has become an incubator of new initiatives in biogeochemistry.”
Lab of the Year judges commended the design team for translating client objectives into an unusually successful project. “You can see how carefully they listened to the client and paid attention to detail,” says Bill Wilson, Wilson Associates, Boston. “The scale of the project is delightful, too, capturing the unique character of the place, much like the old Scripps Institute.”
Judge Rick Johnson, Fisher Hamilton, adds, “Wood Hole is the role model for designing a facility to the research that is performed and understanding the scientific demands of the campus and community. This is a testimonial of the facility fitting the science.”
The Contact: Catherine Hunt, Ellenzweig, 617-491-5575 ext. 240, hunt@ellenzweig.com.
