As a leading academic medical center with an increasingly limited amount of space on campus, Vanderbilt University needed to extend programs beyond the medical center campus. The Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery Laboratory at Cool Springs Life Science Center (CSLC) is the first wet research entity outside the main medical center campus, and advances the long term goals of the medical center to connect VUMC’s innovative research enterprise with the clinical resources with which the community has become familiar.
The project consists of the build-out of 13,000 GSF of shell space on the first level of an existing developer-constructed science center. The program includes 8,000 GSF of wet lab space, two NMRs, administrative and conference/ break rooms, and additional ancillary spaces. The wet lab space utilizes modular casework with approximately 32 fume hoods, and is designed to the established standards of the main medical center campus.
Designed with an open laboratory plan with full-height glass partitions, researchers are afforded visual connections to the exterior, across the lab, and into adjacent administrative and break areas. Open ceilings with exposed mechanicals complement the innovative and highly technical research performed in the lab. New dedicated mechanical systems with heat recovery were designed to accommodate the mass spectrometers, and other heat-producing equipment. Currently pending LEED Silver certification, a significant effort was made to reduce energy consumption through use of efficient lighting technology and maximizing daylight.
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