“It was a special privilege to blend the mandates of sustainability, flexibility for a 100 year-plus research building, and a 'Lean Delivery' approach toengineering and construction. The impact of these mandates on the design team was significant. Far more significant, of course, is the facility that they inspired.”
Steve Frei, PE, LEED® AP
AEI Principal-in-Charge
WISCONSIN INSTITUTES FOR DISCOVERY The new paradigm for flexible, sustainable, interdisciplinary research. The organization of spaces in the 300,000 sf Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery research building ("Discovery")—collocating the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Research—simultaneously serves energy efficiency, functional long-term flexibility, interdisciplinary collaboration, and public transparency. Highly flexible research neighborhoods—with reconfigurable overhead utility drops and "plug-and-play" accommodations for hoods and chilled beams—contain nested pods of focused lab spaces, surrounded by support space and offices, creating concentric thermal buffers, in turn surrounded by public spaces. Because research innovation happens at the interfaces of disciplines, these areas offer incidental gathering points and other means to foster creative collaboration. Energy-saving measures include natural ventilation of the public ground floor/atrium zones, a geoexchange system, aggressive heat recovery, and chilled beam technology, with the goal of consuming 50% less energy than comparable UW facilities. Delivered using Integrated Project Delivery, the Discovery building opened in December 2010, estimated to have been a year sooner than would have been possible using a design-bid-build approach. Discovery's mission is accelerating new knowledge to improve human health and well-being.
From the client:
“We established an ambitious goal to use 50% less energy and water than other laboratory facilities on the Madison campus. Through the innovation and expertise of the people at AEI, we are exceeding this goal and setting a new standard for the campus.”
George E. Austin
Services: Mechanical, Electrical, Sustainability, Architectural Lighting Design, Utility Infrastructure,
Size: 300,000 sf
Location: Madison, WI
Architect: Ballinger Uihlein Wilson Architects
LEED® Status: LEED® Gold Awards: 2010 Top Projects Award 2011 Commercial Design Awards, Project of the Year & Best New Development or Renovation -
2011 Historic Preservation Award, Future Landmark Category
2011 AIA Wisconsin Merit Award
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View Article - "Private, public research under one roof at UW", JSOnline - February 6, 2010
View Video - "Isthmus on the isthmus: Inside the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery" - July 23, 2010
