This 6,400 sq ft renovation project for the UCSF Department of OB-GYN located on the 14th floor of the Health Sciences West building required lab benches and Workstations for 34 people.  Lab support spaces included Cell Culture, Equipment, Microscopy, and Radioactivity “Hot” rooms plus a Dark room. Non-Laboratory support areas included Break / Conference Room and an Administration Suite housing three private offices for the individual PI’s.

In our design response we reversed the primary circulation from its traditional location on the glazed periphery of the HSW building to the interior and relocated shared service and technical spaces to the core of the floor plate away from the generous window walls that wrap around all four sides of the building. Consequently, the open Laboratories, private offices and the shared break room all benefited from the available daylight and spectacular views. This design tactic also yielded a 15% increase in usable floor area when compared to the previous perimeter corridor. 

During our program analysis we identified a social “knuckle” comprising the break room, admin and main entry that could be shared by both lab spaces. We located the PI offices adjacent to these social spaces and between the labs to maximize interaction between PIs and their staff and to foster contact and collaboration between personnel from both Laboratory spaces.