Laboratory Building Design
Influence of Modernism
“The design of Federal office buildings, particularly those to be located in the Nation’s Capital, must meet a two-fold requirement. First, it must provide efficient and economical facilities for the use of Government agencies. Second, it must provide visual testimony to the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American government.
Landscaping is included as an integral part of the design of any building and appropriate instructions are given in this respect during the design stage to contract architects and engineers. As part of these instructions, the architect is told to make his design in keeping with the motif of the community."
- —Rivas-Camp 2002
Richards Medical Research Laboratories at University of Pennsylvania Floor Plan and Elevation
Salk Institute, La Jolla, California Site Plan
Buildings 29 and 29A
The buildings at the Division of Biologics Standards (DBS) suffered from many of the design limitations of the Richards laboratory building discussed above. From 1955 to 1960, scientists and administrators in the DBS were spread amongst multiple buildings on the NIH campus, including Buildings 4, 5, 7, and 8. While Building 29 allowed researchers to work and collaborate more easily in one consolidated space, by the early 1960s additional space was clearly needed. The firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls was chosen for the project as they had completed or served as associate architect on several largescale Modern design projects in the 1950s–early 1960s, including the GE Motors Technical Center, in Detroit, Michigan and Michigan Bell Telephone Northwest Staff Center in Southfield, Michigan. Smith, Hinchman & Grylls were utilizing new modern technology as well as incorporating the feedback and wishes of their clients much like Louis Kahn at the Salk institute in order to create designs that would allow for the best use of lighting and space for the researchers working in their buildings. As such, Building 29A was designed with an innovative floor plan that catered to the needs of the NIH DBS Laboratory Annex. The floor plan featured an exterior perimeter corridor that shielded the labs from light, heat, and noise from the outdoors, as well as modular laboratories which could be adjusted as project needs changed, and continuous utility cores behind each hallway of labs in order to facilitate these changes easily. Engineering/architectural controls such as air intake towers and a high velocity exhaust air system were also put in place to ensure that the working environment was both functional and safe.