CannonDesign has a long and proud history of designing many of our national laboratories around the country. These facilities require an immense amount of expertise, attention and innovation to deliver exceptional solutions for our nation’s top scientists. Here are some of our top examples: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Spallation Neutron Source Second Target Station Expanding the capabilities of a facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for an international user community. Read more > Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chemical and Material Sciences Building Unique sustainable strategies for this building include a photovoltaic array, light shelves, operable windows, and hybrid solar lighting – a technology developed at ORNL. Read…

The team from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Building 201 recently celebrated the topping out ceremony – reaching a significant milestone in the design and construction process. Explore the project here > This iconic building will house the Research and Exploratory Development Department (REDD), an innovative and creative organization at the heart of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory’s current research and development team. Jim Schatz, Head of Research & Exploratory Development, gave an inspiring speech during the ceremony. A few of his remarks are below. “Today we reach an exciting milestone in the journey from design to construction of an amazing new facility here at APL which we usually refer…

The CannonDesign team was pleased to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for the renovated Yale Sterling Chemistry Laboratory. This opening culminates three years of intense work that drew on integrated expertise from a variety of CannonDesign offices including Boston, Washington DC, St. Louis and New York City.  There has been a very positive response from the Yale community, with the Yale Daily News covering the opening extensively and capturing President Salovey’s remarks. We are at a moment here at Yale when we will take the excellent science, research, and education we do on campus, especially Science Hill, and move it to a truly outstanding level. – Peter Salovey, Yale President Yale’s Sterling Chemistry Lab has…

Excellent facility design will be your R&D grant differentiator Funding challenges are a major concern for many institutions around the United States. Colleges and universities are tasked with securing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in grants each year to continue their important research and development. When applying for R&D funding from the federal government, the proposed scientific concept needs to hold merit, but equally important is showing the merit of your research facility. How will the facility support the research and development within? Related Content: Infographic: Navigating the Complexities of Federal Grants For construction, renovation and equipment grant applications, the requirements include engineering criteria, architectural criteria, line drawings, timelines,…

Innovative Design Is the concept of innovative lab design more about the design process than the actual physical space? Has it been 30 years since the last real innovation in laboratory design has been introduced? Other than the introduction and rapid incorporation of technology in the laboratory, what else has changed? Isn’t innovative laboratory design today a mix of both research connectivity and paradigm change within an organization coupled with the physical environment? Laboratory Design Today The research laboratory, which was once designed as an insular cathedral made up of smaller oratories, faced a major change thirty or so years ago with the introduction of larger, open “ball room” environments….

Three teaching labs at the GW Virginia Science & Technology Campus’s (VSTC) Collections and Conservation Resource Center (CCRC) building have been completed and are now in use, enabling an expansion of health science programs on campus. Comprising of four teaching labs and associated support spaces, the fit-out provides state-of-the-art science labs for teaching chemistry, biological sciences, physics and general studies. The classrooms are designed to be flexible, allowing for alternative teaching pedagogies including scale-up and didactic instruction, and are digitally robust, including real-time projections of instructional activities. Fit-out included HVAC, electrical, tele/data and lab gases, fume hoods and bio-safety cabinets, an autoclave and other equipment. In a GW article published…

Punit Jain, AIA, LEED Fellow, has been selected as a juror of the 2016 Laboratory of the Year Awards. A prestigious and global competition, the Lab of the Year Awards recognizes the best in laboratory design through innovation, construction, sustainability and operation. Jain is a leader in our science and technology and sustainability practices. As a LEED Fellow, he has overseen the design and construction of over 24 LEED projects in the life sciences, engineering and physical sciences. He is responsible for generating innovative solutions in regenerative and net zero design for complex scientific facilities at a campus and building scale. Punit serves on the national board of the International Institute…

Coppin State University’s Science and Technology Center is a singular building that must address and fulfill many aspirations of this urban campus. It is a building that operates at both a macro and micro scale. It is a part of a campus, part of a city and part of a neighborhood. It fits into the fabric of the campus and the patterns of daily student life.  It is a building specifically designed to meet today’s exacting tolerances and specifications for labs and teaching spaces but also to promote the cross pollination of ideas across disciplines and between faculty and students. The City – The Campus – The Quad The Baltimore…

The Association of University Research Park’s (AURP) national conference was held at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus where leading academics, researchers and scientists convened to share the latest trends and ideas in research park development. There is a growing need to think holistically about these incubators of innovation, research and technology. Here are the 3 top trends that arose. 1. A successful park not only transforms the university, but also the surrounding community Gone are the days of research parks existing solely for the benefit of the university. There is huge socio-economic value to consider in the larger community context. How can a new park link once disparate places? How…

Colleges and universities need to find new ways to recruit, retain and graduate STEM students – and design thinking can help. That’s the driving message in Stephen Blair’s new piece for Fast Company, “3 New Ideas to Help Universities Attract and Empower STEM Students,” which identities getting out of the basement, embracing startup culture and infusing cutting-edge technology as key opportunities.f