MDIBL's New "Green" Laboratory
On July 27, 2006 the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory broke ground on its new laboratory building with a ceremony following the Annual Meeting of the Corporation. After two years of design and construction, the building was dedicated on July 24, 2008. For a pictoral chronicle of the construction progress, scroll down.
The new facility represents MDIBL's commitment to the environment and its surroundings, and is unique in that it was constructed following Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. In addition to being LEED registered, MDIBL partnered with Labs21, a program of the EPA and U.S. Department of Energy that promotes sustainable laboratory design. The design and construction plan of the new laboratory emphasized strategies for sustainable site development, energy efficiency, water use, waste reduction, and indoor environment quality. As a result of the LEED efforts, the building uses 48% less energy and 46% less water than a comparable, conventionally designed laboratory would be expected to use, and saves the equivalent of 10,229 gallons of gasoline annually.
The 15,000 square foot facility is a state of the art laboratory and teaching facility used by Center for Marine Functional Genomic Studies scientists and their support staff. Core facilities in the building include:
- The Martha and Wistar Morris Center for the Environment and Human Health
- The John W. and Jean C. Boylan Center for Cellular and Molecular Physiology
- The Edwin S. Marks Research Training Laboratory
- MDIBL's Marine DNA Sequencing and Analysis Facility
- A Facility for Biological Imaging
- Comparative Toxicogenomics Database
- Research space for three MDIBL year-round investigators and their labs
Nickerson and O'Day of Bangor, Maine, was the construction manager for the $7.1 million dollar project. WBRC Architects and Engineers, also of Bangor, Maine, designed the building, and Allied Engineering of Portland, Maine, was the commissioning agent. 80% of the total cost was spent in Maine, and support for the building was provided by the Maine Biomedical Research Fund and numerous private donors and foundations. MDIBL thanks those who made the new building a reality.
For more information on the construction of the new building, please explore the links below.
Video
Pictures of the Construction Process
Phase 1: Planning and Design
Phase 2: Site preparation
Phase 3: Structure
Phase 4: Interior
Phase 5: Move-In and Dedication
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