Transforming a Legacy: NIH Renovation Project Honored in 2025 Design Excellence Awards

Perkins&Will’s award-winning renovation of NIH’s E-Wing at Building 10 transformed a historic 1955 facility into 250,000 square feet of state-of-the-art clinical and biomedical research space for nine NIH institutes. All images: ©Halkin Mason Photography

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has completed a transformative renovation of the East Wing (E-Wing) of Building 10—the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center—on its Bethesda, MD campus. Initially constructed in 1955, this 14-story, 2.5 million-square-foot facility has long been a cornerstone of translational medicine. With the E-Wing renovation, NIH continues its decades-long effort to modernize this historic complex to meet today's cutting-edge clinical and research needs.

Planning for the renovation began nearly a decade ago, with enabling projects to relocate existing programs. A series of user workshops with representatives from the nine NIH institutes helped shape programmatic priorities, adjacency needs, and infrastructure requirements. Following a two-year design process, construction commenced in 2017. Occupancy of the new spaces began in late 2023 and will continue in phases through 2025 as final cGMP validations are completed.

Spanning 250,000 square feet and involving collaboration from more than a dozen architectural, engineering, and consulting firms, the E-Wing project represents a monumental feat of adaptive reuse. Designed by Perkins&Will and led by project officer Jeanne Keegan of NIH, the renovated E-Wing now accommodates nine NIH institutes and centers—ranging from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to the Division of Transfusion Medicine (DTM)—in state-of-the-art biomedical lab and clinical research spaces.

For these efforts, Perkins&Will received the Excellence in Whole Building/Holistic Design—Renovated prize in the sixth annual Design Excellence Awards. The award was presented at the 2025 Lab Design Conference in Denver, CO, on May 12. Joe Popp, AIA, LEED AP, associate principal of science and technology at Perkins&Will's Washington, DC office, accepted the award and gave a brief presentation at the conference about the renovation project. Popp also spoke to Lab Design News about the project—MEP engineers from Affiliated Engineers, Inc. also contributed input.

A model for translational research

*On each of the laboratory floors, a suite of workstations are sited adjacent to the labs (with direct visual access to them), and are utilized by post docs for write up and heads down areas.*

Building 10 has long embodied the "bench-to-bedside" research model, uniquely integrating patient care with scientific inquiry. While the original design—combining hospital beds and labs in the same tower—was unconventional, it laid the groundwork for an enduring model now emulated by research hospitals worldwide. The E-Wing renovation enhances this model by bringing translational research programs and patient care facilities closer together and into better alignment.

"Due to the sheer size of the 70-year-old Building 10 and the changing programmatic needs of the facility, NIH has been renovating Building 1 wing-by-wing for more than two decades," Popp tells Lab Design News. "Also known as the Clinical Center (CC), the 14-story, 2.5 million square foot complex includes multiple additions as well. Today, the CC supports a research complex that now includes 350 flexible patient bed modules that function as inpatient beds and day hospital stations, as well as research laboratories, clinics, a vivarium, an animal surgery suite, offices, hospital support services, and radiation oncology."

By relocating DTM's apheresis and BSL-2 labs into the E-Wing, NIH has centralized essential services and enabled closer collaboration among disciplines. Popp outlines the design objectives for the E-Wing Renovation, which align with the NIH's broader mission area of conducting and supporting research to improve the health of the nation:

To support multidisciplinary research and discovery by introducing flexible planning principles and greater visual transparency that promote a higher level of interaction and collaboration. This approach encourages trans-disciplinary research between Institutes. Delivering such flexible labs provides a research space that can grow with the science that constantly evolves over time.
To enhance institute center laboratories by designing functional research and support spaces that optimize adjacencies in support of the Clinical Center Division of Transfusion Medicine's apheresis and Dowling clinic donor/patient program.
To renew the building infrastructure by introducing new and modern architectural, mechanical, electrical, and other key building systems that meet or exceed current codes and standards for life safety and energy consumption. This approach realizes substantial reductions in utility costs while reducing maintenance outlays over the next several decades for this modernized E-Wing facility. All mechanical, electrical, and laboratory services are supplied by existing campus central utilities.
To integrate sustainable design by introducing systems and proven sustainable design strategies that maximize energy efficiencies, building envelope integrity, daylighting, transparency, and other performance measures while promoting a comfortable research environment.

"Location is critical to the success of this research. Therefore, repurposing the existing hospital wing into research supports each of these Design Objectives by increasing the proximity of the Clinical Research Hospital to the distal research wings," says Popp.

Proximity encourages collaboration

*Teaching lab with the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES).*

The renovated E-Wing now houses nine Institute Centers, which have been consolidated from different locations both on- and off-campus to increase collaboration opportunities between branches.

"The original 1950s design that combined patient beds and research labs in the same tower was never ideal for many reasons. However, the proximity of the research to patients in separate wings of the same large complex has supported the 'bench-to-bedside' model standard for translational research institutions worldwide," says Popp. "Such proximity between the research and the hospital allows the nine institutes now housed within Building 10's E-Wing to engage in greater research initiatives for patient care."

Perkins&Will led a collaborative programming process involving workshops, questionnaires, and site tours to build consensus on lab layout and resource sharing. Each of the 10 research floors was planned with open wet labs along the south side to maximize daylight and ceiling height, administrative offices on the north to align with existing circulation and benefit from softer northern light, and centrally located lab support zones with more intensive infrastructure needs. This organization supports flexibility, optimizes daylight access, and ensures efficient adjacency between lab, support, and office functions.

"Due to the plenum design strategy, this open southern zone could also achieve the maximum ceiling heights to increase access to south-facing daylight throughout the space," says Popp. "Alternatively, to take advantage of the continuity of the primary circulation corridor in adjacent wings, seven bays on the north face of E Wing would be dedicated to administrative offices on every floor. Such spaces have greater benefits to daylight with northern exposures and the reduction of glare required of office environments."

Overcoming structural and engineering challenges

*E-Wing’s dual-pass high purity water system.*

Modernizing a 70-year-old building came with significant structural challenges—chief among them, the E-Wing's low 12-foot floor-to-floor height. Modern biomedical research labs typically require greater vertical space for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. To address this, the design team implemented a decentralized supply air system, increased the number of vertical exhaust shafts, incorporated chilled beam technology, and reallocated lab support functions closer to new mechanical rooms.

"The challenge of the adaptive reuse of the E-Wing facility came with both design constraints and opportunities," says Popp. "One of the opportunities specific to the 12th floor cGMP portion was to utilize the building's existing south-facing punch windows within the CNC return corridor. The benefit of this design decision was twofold. Firstly, it maintained the exterior's original integrity. Secondly, it provided the laboratories access to natural daylighting and views via sliding glass doors and adjacent panelized modular cleanroom wall panels. The intensity of focus required among the activities taking place within cGMPs rarely lend themselves to work environments that allow for natural daylight and views."

Popp adds, "In order to realize these benefits—while ensuring that the cGMP cell processing products were not compromised—a glazed, double-wall sealed system was developed at the exterior wall to diffuse solar gain through the punched windows. Window alignment was planned into the prefabricated walls for the cGMP allowing for clear lines of sight to the outdoors, while allowing natural daylighting to penetrate to the interior lab spaces. Individual fans were introduced within each window niche's annular space to provide air movement for passive heating and cooling, the dissipation of heat build-up, and the prevention of condensation."

A particularly complex engineering feat involved lowering the foundation slab of the B2-level cagewash facility by 24 inches. This enabled sufficient clearance for new infrastructure without compromising structural integrity. The team utilized advanced Revit 3D modeling and conducted extensive subsurface investigations to ensure a successful execution.

Designing for sustainability and resilience

*Pass-through with HEPA filters to move products from the cGMP labs to Cyrofreezer rooms.*

In alignment with NIH's sustainability goals, the project was designed to meet LEED v4 BD+C certification standards. "The sustainable and energy-saving initiatives include the selection of state-of-the-art HVAC system upgrades, including new supply air handling units, new heat recovery, utilizing a combined preheat/heat recovery coil in the new AHUs, chilled beam technology, and new exhaust fans," says Popp. "Extensive electrical updates were implemented in coordination with a robust lighting strategy, featuring enhanced illumination layouts, high-efficiency fixtures, and automated controls for reduced energy use. A series of Indoor Environmental Quality strategies were also integrated into the design."

The facility's engineering controls include extensive building metering systems such as steam flow meters—HPS on all floors, LPS for plumbing and humidifiers, and MPS for cGMP, Cagewash, steam generators, and autoclaves—alongside occupied/unoccupied temperature controls. Water flow metering encompasses ultrasonic strap-on meters for chilled and heated water, as well as insertion turbine meters for condensate discharge, heating and reheating, and process cooling water. Air handling units (AHUs) utilize a combined heat recovery and preheat coil system to reduce piping and optimize maintenance space.

Lighting and controls feature dual technology occupancy and vacancy sensors, dimming, programmable time switches, control relays, and integration with Quantum Vue software. Enhanced commissioning is supported by an Ongoing Commissioning Plan for all major energy-consuming systems, which includes quarterly checks in the first year and biennial reviews thereafter. The plan specifies metering requirements, trend-tracking protocols, performance thresholds, evaluation processes, and corrective action planning.

The project also integrates with NIH's broader sustainability programs, including the use of a centralized utility plant, campus-wide recycling initiatives, and the NIH Green Labs Program.

Additionally, new teaching labs for the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) offer flexible, high-tech environments that support ongoing education in biomedical science. The design of these spaces encourages interaction, adaptability, and lifelong learning.

A national asset renewed

The NIH Building 10 E-Wing renovation is a significant step toward strengthening the infrastructure that supports biomedical research. By bringing clinical care, research, and education together in a modernized space, the project enables the NIH to continue its role at the forefront of health science.

With thoughtful design and updated systems, the E-Wing has been reimagined to support the evolving needs of today's research community—offering a strong example of how older buildings can be adapted for the future of translational medicine.