Imagine taking a portion of a medical research building constructed in the 1920s and converting it into a state of the art sustainable lab, without destroying its historic character or disrupting the daily routines of occupants above, below and within the designated space under reconstruction, and while conforming to national standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Such was the challenge presented to New Haven "green" architectural firm, Svigals + Partners, by the Yale University School of Medicine in 2004. The project in question, the first floor of Sterling Hall's I-Wing, was completed in September 2006 at a cost of $6.8 million and awarded LEED-CI Gold certification in late spring 2008.
It is the second laboratory renovation at the Yale School of Medicine on which Svigals + Partners has collaborated and the second to be awarded LEED Gold. The first, the third floor of Sterling Hall's C-Wing, set a national precedent as the country's first LEED Commercial Interiors (CI)-certified renovated lab.
According to Robert Skolozdra, project architect and partner, Svigals + Partners, the I-Wing first floor project pitted the firm's ingenuity and sustainable design expertise against the realities of the school's early 20th century architecture, which was never originally intended to contain advanced utility, communication or fire protection systems, nor world class facilities housing Zebra fish, PCR tools, DNA analyzing equipment, electron microscopes or mass spectrometers.
The revamped I-Wing space consists of four large, open-design wet bench laboratories, and provides light filled offices and common facilities for faculty, staff, visitors, fellows and students. Previously under-utilized rooms have been converted into efficient laboratory space with new modular casework, glass partitions and state of the art mechanical and data systems.
Svigals + Partners specified furnishings, flooring, fabrics, and even insulation and adhesives that met strict sustainable requirements.