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Old Chem Gets a Modern Makeover with $190 Million Renovation
The University of Cincinnati’s $190M renovation of Old Chem modernizes laboratories and collaborative learning spaces, preserves historic features, and fosters interdisciplinary research and accessibility while supporting the university’s science education mission
Renovating Laboratories: Key Concerns and Challenges in Transforming Existing Spaces
Laboratory renovation offers sustainability and cost advantages over new construction but poses complex challenges—including structural limits, MEP upgrades, safety compliance, and stakeholder coordination—that require careful planning and collaboration to create flexible, high-performing research spaces
Streamlining Cardiac Procedures Through Smart Renovation
SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital is renovating its cardiac catheterization lab with over $1 million in advanced imaging technology, redesigned workflows, and enhanced safety features—offering a model for other lab projects on how strategic upgrades can improve efficiency, optimize space, and future-proof a high-acuity clinical environment
Busting the Myth of Adaptive Reuse: Lessons in Retrofitting Labs for Structural Performance and Sustainability
As demand for life science and advanced technology spaces grows, adaptive reuse offers sustainability and speed—but as speakers at the 2025 Lab Design Conference emphasized, converting offices, warehouses, or retail buildings into high-performance labs presents complex structural challenges that require careful evaluation of each building’s limitations and suitability
Designing Flexible Academic Labs for a Changing Research Landscape
Academic laboratory renovations are increasingly replacing new construction, with success hinging on early stakeholder engagement, infrastructure upgrades, and flexible, light-filled designs that balance safety, adaptability, and recruitment goals
Advocacy to Action: Science Building Breaks Ground
Massasoit Community College has broken ground on a $52 million, sustainability-driven renovation of its STEM facilities—achieved through strategic advocacy and reframing efforts that secured state funding and set a model for cost-effective, mission-aligned campus transformation
From Old to High-Performing: Navigating the Complexities of Breathing New Life into Existing Buildings
Outdated buildings—including a federal lab and a former big-box store—can be successfully transformed into high-performing, flexible laboratory spaces by leveraging early feasibility studies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and design strategies focused on sustainability, adaptability, and occupant well-being
Creating the Future from the Past: An Environmental Case Study
At the 2025 Lab Design Conference, Leo A Daly’s Larry Wright presented the full gut renovation of the Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute, illustrating how outdated, highly technical mid-century research buildings can be sustainably transformed—preserving architectural legacy, improving animal research operations, and achieving LEED Silver certification—through thoughtful planning, structural innovation, and reduced embodied carbon
Modernizing a Mid-Century Lab for 21st Century Research
The renovation of the University of Georgia’s Cedar Street Building C demonstrates how aging research facilities can be transformed into modern, flexible, and sustainable lab environments while honoring their historic character
Webinar Preview: Sustainability Considerations in Small Laboratory Renovations and Refits
Join us for this webinar to learn how architects, lab planners, and lab managers can approach small laboratory renovations in ways that achieve meaningful sustainability goals without relying on third-party certifications, using a flexible, collaborative strategy