by ArchitectureWeek

Designing a laboratory for children's medical research requires a sensitive juxtaposition of hard science with compassionate health care. In the new Children's Research Institute at the University of South Florida, the architecture firm Flad & Associates has succeeded in merging those two dissimilar ideas.

This $12 million facility provides 50,000 square feet of state-of-the-art biomedical research laboratories for studying endocrinology, molecular genetics, molecular cardiology, immunology, allergy/ immunology, cardiac transplant, and pediatric diabetes.

In part as a tribute to the importance of this work, the labs have been placed around the perimeter of each floor, giving researchers the amenities of daylight. The open plan also gives them access to each other and to the common core support laboratories. Although the facility is not intended for the general public, each floor is accented in brightly painted primary colors to remind researchers of the young lives they are working to save.

Support facilities include isotope labs, glassware washing, cold rooms and environmental chambers, media prep, and tissue culture suites. The building also houses faculty offices, office support, and a "think tank" program that brings multidisciplinary scientists together in a seminar conference facility.

Photo: Bob Harr/Hedrich Blessing The four elevations of the new facility provide new faces to their respective streets. Image: Flad & Associates