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Located in downtown St. Petersburg, the building is infill for a once-vacant city block, presenting a new facade to two intersecting streets. Service access is provided from an alley shared in common with a Ronald McDonald House®, which houses the families of sick children visiting the hospital from out of town.

The heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system provides air to the laboratories with a combination of two systems. Labs with intermittent occupancy have a two-position system controlled by the light switch. This provides maximum air flow during occupied periods to enhance safety and minimum air flow during unoccupied periods to maximize energy savings. The open labs with a high thermal diversity are served by the variable air volume system to provide only the air required to meet this load and thus optimize energy savings.

The Children's Research Institute was the product of a collaboration between All Children's Hospital, the University of South Florida, the City of St. Petersburg, and a state-funded matching program established by the Florida Legislature and the Florida Board of Regents.

The design/construction team included Alfonso Architects, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., Whitehouse Engineers, King Engineering, Design Partners, Inc., Driggers Engineering Services Inc., and Bovis Construction, Inc.

Flad & Associates is a 200-person architectural, engineering, planning, and interiors firm founded in 1927. It has offices in Gainesville, Florida; Madison, Wisconsin; Stamford, Connecticut; San Francisco, California; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and St. Louis, Missouri.

A typical open plan laboratory displays a glimpse into the brightly colored corridor. Photo: Bob Harr/Hedrich Blessing A computer rendering of a typical lab generated during design shows a remarkable likeness to the final result. Image: Flad & Associates A typical floor shows perimeter labs in red, shared support spaces in green, staff offices and conference rooms in blue, and circulation in yellow. Image: Flad & Associates At night, the distinctive entry tower is a beacon to the neighborhood. Photo: Bob Harr/Hedrich Blessing A two-story conference room in the Children's Research Institute looks out over St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo: Bob Harr/Hedrich Blessing   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.