The project: A six-story, 160,000-sf vertical expansion of the Washington University School of Medicine’s Lipstein BJC Institute of Health (BJCIH) that added five new laboratory floors (including a biosafety level 3 laboratory) and one new mechanical equipment penthouse on top of an existing six-story research facility.

The goal: Add critical mechanical and electrical utility infrastructure to a large research facility that must remain under constant operation.

Project highlight: The new, 7,900-sf biosafety level 3 laboratory (BSL-3) supports research of deadly airborne viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, Tuberculosis, and more. Additional spaces include a 5,100-sf Biologic Therapy Core Facility designed to ISO-7 cleanroom specifications, following Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations (enforced by the Food and Drug Administration), for cellular therapies to treat cancer; 103,000-sf of expanded laboratory space; and about 44,000-sf of mechanical building-support areas. The design also includes accommodations for a second BSL-3 lab to be constructed in the future.

Challenge: The facility had to remain operational during construction. Solution: The design included extensive phasing and rerouting foot traffic via covered walkways and closed certain areas for the safety of the public and residents.

Challenge: The dangerous viruses present in the BSL-3 lab made safety for research staff a critical aspect of the design. Solution: Dedicated ventilation and exhaust systems were designed with full N+1 redundancy and extensive HEPA filtration to ensure the safe study of these viruses to develop treatments, vaccines, and diagnostic tools to help control the virus epidemics. The BSL-3 laboratory design also includes precise airflow measurement and control equipment used to maintain critical laboratory pressurization required to protect the BSL-3 research staff and surrounding areas from exposure to these lethal pathogens.

Challenge: The BJCIH’s location in the heart of the dense medical campus could pose safety issues due to lab exhaust. Solution: The design team conducted extensive wind studies using built-to-scale models of surrounding buildings to ensure any and all potentially harmful laboratory exhaust would be safety discharged and adequately dissipated.

Challenge: Providing emergency power for life safety systems. Solution: A new 2500kW emergency generator located on the lowest basement level of the existing building serves equipment installed on floors seven through twelve of the vertical expansion. This new emergency generator will output a medium voltage rating of 4160 volts to support a new centrifugal chiller to increase the building’s overall chilled water system capacity. The new generator provides emergency power for the life safety systems (egress lighting, fire alarm), mechanical equipment for the specialty labs to maintain environmental conditions, and receptacles for lab equipment that need generator back-up power to continue production processes.

The outcome: State-of-the-art heat recovery systems recycle energy from exhausted BSL-3 and wet-laboratory air to pre-condition outside air brought into the ventilation systems, which substantially reduces overall energy use and utility costs.