With a focus on science-on-display, EwingCole designed the Smithsonian’s greenest building to date.
On September 19, 2014, the Smithsonian Institution opened the doors of its greenest building to date: The Charles McC. Mathias Laboratory on the campus of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Md. Designed to be the first LEED-Platinum building for the institution, the Mathias Lab demonstrates a renewed commitment by the Smithsonian and the U.S. Congress to invest in crucial environmental research. The project is a cornerstone of sustainable development outlined in the master plan for SERC’s 2,650-acre site, located on the shoreline of the Rhode River and Chesapeake Bay.
The SERC site serves as a natural lab for intensive long-term research by scientists on a variety of interconnected ecosystems. In support of its mission, the campus is comprised of several facilities including research labs, educational and exhibition pavilions, offices and dormitories for visiting scientists. In the past, much of SERC’s world-class research was conducted in substandard facilities and temporary trailers that had become de facto lab space. The goal of this project was to eliminate the trailers, convert the existing labs to office and education space and provide new state-of-the-art labs to serve the next generation of environmental scientists.
It’s for the project’s keen attention to sustainable offerings, environmental stewardship and the advancement of the Smithsonian’s science on display, that EwingCole’s design of The Charles McC. Mathias Laboratory has earned a High Honors Award in R&D Magazine’s 2015 Laboratory of the Year competition.
Building site/design emulate sustainable approach
Built on the site of an old dairy farm, the project consolidates state-of-the-art labs into a new building and repositions the outmoded labs into offices for senior researchers, students, conferences and support spaces. The project takes full advantage of the southern exposure to position solar panels and maximize daylighting in the labs to reduce energy demand.
“The length and scale of the south façade presented some challenges during design,” says Howard Skoke, Senior Architect and Planner, EwingCole. “We wanted to take full advantage of the wonderful views to the landscape, but also be mindful of the right balance of natural light and glare in a research environment. The façade is fairly open with strategic shading on both the exterior and interior to control the intensity of the sunlight coming in. In terms of materials, we used several profiles of industrial-grade metal panels, cementitious plank siding and glass curtain wall, to enliven the texture and modulate the scale of this very long building.”
Positioning of the new lab minimized extensive excavation by embedding the lower level of the building—a former gravel parking lot—into the slope. The central utility plant is located here, with direct connection to the geo-exchange system in the open field to the south. This energy infrastructure is located below a reconstructed habitat, characterized as a “wet meadow” that serves as the major stormwater management feature for the core research campus.
The constructed wetland system includes a series of weirs to control water flow and several above-grade cisterns for landscape irrigation. The system greatly exceeds standards for stormwater quantity and quality. The position of the new lab creates a wedge-shaped atrium space connecting to the existing L-shaped structure. The atrium benefits from northern exposure, and virtually all lighting to this space is without the aid of artificial sources. Careful landscape planting and hardscape reduces heat island effects. Site maintenance vehicles are solar powered, to further reduce the overall carbon footprint of the campus.
Planning/design facilitates collaboration
Before the new Mathias Lab, almost two-thirds of SERC’s office space and one-fourth of its lab space was housed in trailers. This disjointed environment hindered communication and collaboration, as well as the types of experiments scientists were able to perform. Bench space was taken up by equipment and used as storage, often to the detriment of lab safety.
To facilitate SERC’s team approach to multidisciplinary science, the new floor plan segregates different types of storage outside the lab and offers more flexible in-lab storage options. Larger, open-bench labs are paired with smaller specialized labs for fume hoods or equipment. Several layers of circulation serve the lab space, both along the atrium and within the research areas. Strategic placement of formal and informal meeting rooms link the various lab groups.
The Mathias Lab is home to a diverse staff of 20 senior scientists and more than 180 researchers, technicians and students conducting long-term descriptive and experimental research that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. According to Skoke, to encourage collaboration, labs are grouped synergistically into six guilds of like-minded scientists: marine studies, estuarine ecology, terrestrial ecology, trace element chemistry, environmental chemistry and molecular chemistry. These guilds share resources, equipment, storage and space. The labs aren’t completely separated by walls, encouraging movement between them. Each guild has a separate entry portal and graphic identity to reinforce the interdisciplinary approach.
“The lab guild concept still allows for individual researcher identity, but within the context of the whole,” says Skoke. “We designed the lab blocks in the traditional fashion of 11-ft-wide modules with supporting specialized equipment rooms. These single modules were grouped into doubles and then congregated into larger blocks that make up a guild.”
To support SERC’s success in competitive extramural funding and evolving approaches to advanced environmental research, the lab guilds are designed for flexibility. Modular furniture allows new projects to expand or retract when research is completed. Standardization of systems and components accommodates changing equipment and technology. Office space, along the atrium, is similarly standardized to adapt to seasonal and annual fluctuations in staffing, intern and fellowship training and visiting scientists.
“This particular lab placed a priority on having a standardized layout, providing for future flexibility in the movement of researchers and staff,” says Jeff Hirsch, Director of Cultural Practice, EwingCole. “By relying on standardized labs and system components, we were able to accommodate future expansion on the second floor, which could potentially house several additional lab units.”
Key shared support spaces include a large loading/receiving area for processing samples arriving from the field, glassware washing for chemistry, instrument fabrication and calibration and secure storage for preserved biological specimens.
Lab safety/energy efficiency
The project utilized Labs21 design guidelines as a starting point for development, leading to a sustainable, high-performance and low-energy lab. “When the project was conceived, there was a conscious commitment by the Smithsonian to reduce energy and integrate the project into the campus in an environmentally sensitive manner,” says Skoke. “And this started with the way the building was sited, creative approaches to greywater recycling, stormwater management and natural light and photovoltaics to help offset energy demand.”
Exceptionally high standards for interior air quality are designed into the HVAC control and monitoring systems. Demand-control ventilation sensors track those areas that require additional airflow. “We also incorporated an air-side energy recovery system, meaning enthalpy wheels on all air systems,” says Hirsch. “Also from the mechanical engineering side, we used variable flow lab exhaust on the systems.”
All sinks are equipped with eyewash; emergency showers are placed throughout. Glasswash and autoclaves are segregated from core labs and operated by trained staff.
Most significantly, SERC’s large quantity of long-term biological specimens, which are stored in alcohol-based media, are segregated in a fully secure and separate environment.
“The Smithsonian’s mission is the increase and diffusion of knowledge. And what they wanted from this building was to expand the ability of SERC to get their research findings out to the public,” says Hirsch. “But it’s also a mission to preserve their data sets and collections for the next generation of environmental scientists.”
“What we did to advance both is build a collection storage facility in the basement of the building that provides SERC with the needed flexibility to house their samples with room for growth,” says Hirsch. “The space could increase by 200% in the amount of samples they store.”
Overall, the Mathias Lab is designed to be one of the most energy-efficient chemistry and biology labs in the country. The building uses a full complement of technologies to achieve this goal: passive solar orientation; high-tech sensors and controls to regulate energy use and airflows in response to shifting activity; a HVAC system supported by geothermal well field; high-efficiency enthalpy wheels with heat exchangers for energy recovery from exchanged air; solar heaters for hot water; and a photovoltaic system of over 650 panels to offset energy use.
Energy modeling, conducted by Atelier Ten, was used as an interactive tool during the planning and design phases to assist with the selection of the most appropriate design strategies. And the finished lab’s reduced carbon footprint comes from a substantial reliance on renewables.
A geothermal well field with 250 wells provides a highly efficient heat exchange for the lab’s HVAC system, while a 368-kW array of solar panels provides power for 16% of the building’s annual electricity expense. Energy efficiency also received a boost from passive solar lighting, as a result of its open interior design and large windows, as well as automated lighting controls and strong insulation.
The lab also recycles 100% of its water through the innovative interconnection of systems. All domestic greywater goes to a tertiary wastewater treatment plant on the SERC campus within walking distance of the lab. From there, it’s sent back to the lab for reuse in fire suppression, water closets, research and horticultural gardens and irrigation. Some of the water nourishes the 4.5-acre constructed wetland on the lab’s south side. Three cisterns capture rainwater to irrigate the wetland, which filters stormwater and provides a living habitat for native plants and animals.
In total, the Mathias Lab will save an estimated 40% on energy costs each year compared to a code-compliant baseline lab.