How To Win a Lab of the Year Award Welcome to the 2005 Laboratory of the Year (LOY) competition, sponsored by R&D Magazine and SEFA, the Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association. This year we celebrate our 38th year of competition and with that, are looking forward to learning about these projects. Over the years, many potential entrants have based their decisions on unwritten common wisdom about the competition and how to win it. The following insider tips may provide a more accurate and complete understanding of what makes a project stand out, and how to prepare an entry that has a better chance of winning. Judges   LOY judges consist of a mix of experienced people from the fields of R&D programming, planning, design, construction, and engineering. The panel also includes representatives from the "user" side--people who work in labs every day--and several knowledgeable people from the furniture/equipment vendor community. The editors of R&D Magazine and Laboratory Design newsletter also serve on the panel. In all, the panel typically includes about a dozen "outside" judges and about four staff editors. We make every effort to create a panel that includes fresh viewpoints as well as some old hands every year. Panelists with potential conflicts of interest (those who have had involvement in the submitted projects) are asked to exclude themselves. Submitted entries are mailed to judges so they have an opportunity to evaluate all projects before judging day. On the appointed date, usually in late February, judges meet at the R&D editorial offices to review the entries, view all submitted slides, and make their decisions in an open and freewheeling format. Award decisions are made by majority vote. Categories   Projects are eligible to win in a number of categories: Laboratory of the Year (the top award for new buildings), Renovated Laboratory of the Year (the top award for renovations/additions), High Honors (projects of excellent quality that just miss LOY status), and Special Mention (projects deserving recognition for some specific quality or feature). Judges may elect to withhold any of these awards, including LOY and Renovated LOY. They can also choose to give multiple awards in the High Honors or Special Mention categories. Judging criteria   Winning projects must be places where the research performed is enhanced by the surroundings, where the tenants work in a safe and productive environment, where walking into the facility is an uplifting experience, and where the facility enhances the client's ability to recruit top researchers. Specific criteria that judges are directed to consider include siting; planning; traffic flow; flow of materials; plant operation; aesthetics; working conditions; suitability for type of research performed; lab design; office design/location; furnishings; animal care facilities (if applicable); library and study facilities; conference and meeting facilities; opportunities for collaboration and idea exchange; energy efficiency; cost to build; and cost to operate. Criteria are not ranked or weighted in any specific order, but a major weakness in a particular criterion may disqualify an entry from being considered for a top award. Criteria considered essential, without which an entry cannot be considered for any type of award, include safety for lab and office personnel, hazard control, access for people with disabilities, and humane treatment of live research subjects. General-purpose instrumentation and equipment are usually not considered as essential components of a design since similar devices might be installed in any lab. However, labs that make special provisions for efficient, safe, and creative use of application-specific equipment may be recognized for these efforts. Buildings that are mainly administrative spaces for research-oriented companies, but do not contain a significant amount of space devoted to actual research, are not suitable candidates for awards. What makes a top award winner  Projects that win the top awards (LOY, Renovated LOY) are architecturally distinguished facilities whose overall design quality is recognized by the judges. They need not be massive or costly, but they must represent the highest quality of design. High Honors and Special Mention winners do not always require the same degree of architectural distinction. In particular, some past Special Mention winners have been quite small facilities (one was a mobile lab in a trailer) that do a particular job extremely well. New or innovative features that may impact the design of future labs have been important points in deciding past LOY winners. Examples discussed in previous LOY judging sessions include the integration of interstitial spaces, split benches, and interactive areas. Appropriate clients   Award-winning projects are the subject of a good deal of publicity, including articles in R&D Magazine, Laboratory Design newsletter, and, often, other Reed Business Information publications. Winners are publicly recognized at an annual awards ceremony at the Pittsburgh Conference in March. Submitted projects that do not win awards but have interesting or meritorious features are sometimes profiled in case histories in Lab Design newsletter or in other related building magazines owned by our parent company, Reed Business Information. Thus buildings whose owners are unwilling or unable to provide significant details about their facilities are not generally appropriate candidates for the competition. If the project is in a non-English-speaking country, an English-speaking liaison must be available for questions and possible interviews. The entry package   Entries come in varied degrees of sophistication, from flashy to basic. A costly entry that mimics a coffee-table book will not win extra points for a facility that doesn't make the grade. A minimalist entry can be quite sufficient as long as it allows the building's quality to shine through. For instance, one recent entry for a winning High Honors project consisted of a set of black-and white, photocopied sheets held together with a binder clip, plus excellent photos and slides. On the other hand, an incomplete entry or one that fails to tell the building's story adequately may eliminate a project from consideration, even if the building itself is of high quality. Judges rarely have the opportunity to tour candidate facilities; so the entry is their only evaluation tool. Regardless of how the entry is "packaged," submitters who use the following tips can give their projects the best possible chance of winning an award: 1. Be complete. Read and follow the instructions carefully. Six complete copies of the entry materials are required, plus one full set of at least 25 (but no more than 35) slides, plus the required entry form and $200 fee. All requested vendor information must be included on the entry form. Slides must be clearly keyed to an accompanying sheet of captions. Hard-copy photos are important additions to the entry, since the judges do not get to view the slides until judging day. 2. Tell the story. Judges are busy people. An executive summary of the most significant aspects of the project will be much appreciated. What were the owner's objectives, and how does the building meet them? What makes the building worthy of attention? Judges also appreciate a statistics page summarizing the building's size in square meters (gross/net), space breakdowns within the facility (percentage of labs, offices, etc.), and costs (preferably with category breakdowns for design, prep, construction, equipment, etc.). Make sure that all key players (architects, planners, contractors, significant subcontractors) are mentioned. If more than one architecture/planning firm is involved, take pains to clarify who did what. 3. Make artwork work for you. Photos and plans can make or break an entry. Slides and any other photos used should be sharp and well-exposed. The research areas must be well-represented; don't use your entire slide quota on exteriors, offices, common spaces, or instrumentation. Photos with people in them are welcomed, but do not send photos showing people doing unsafe things in labs (for instance, people without safety goggles posed at equipment where goggles would clearly be needed). Include graphics showing the building's organization in the form of floor plans (hard copies and/or slides, not blueprints). Elevation and section drawings are often helpful but are not required. Entries involving renovations or additions must clearly show "before" and "after" aspects of the building's layout. If you project wins an award, submitted photos will ultimately be used for both editorial and promotional purposes, in print and online. Make sure to secure broad reproduction rights with professional photographers; a release form is a required part of the entry package. (R&D and its affiliated publications cannot pay for reproduction of these photos, but will gladly provide photo credits.) 4. Highlight the high points. If there are specific aspects of architecture, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, security, waste management, sustainability, or technology that make the building special, be sure to point them out in easily understandable terms. 5. User reactions. If possible, the entry should include comments from the owners and end users. These are most helpful when they refer to specific aspects of the facility, rather than just saying, "It's a great building." Time to get to work The deadline for entering the 2005 Lab of the Year competition is Feb. 2, 2005. Architectural firms, building owners, laboratory planning firms, construction firms, and other involved parties are encouraged to review potential facility candidates and make their plans for creating and submitting entries. Laboratories completed and occupied between August 1, 2002, and December 31, 2003, are eligible for the 2003 competition. R&D Magazine and SEFA are proud of the LOY competition's tradition of excellence and look forward to reviewing a broad range of excellent projects in this year's contest.