Ground Broken for New Environmentally-Friendly Lab Building

July 27, 2006

Scientists, trustees, staff, students, and friends of the Mt. Desert Biological Laboratory gathered in the woods behind the Marshall Lab on July 27, 2006 to break ground for the first new laboratory building to be constructed at MDIBL in over thirty years. As the first “green” research laboratory building ever to be built in Maine, the new facility marks a milestone in the Lab’s commitment to its surroundings and is the result of the same careful, intensive planning that has led to its prodigious and productive growth over the past seven years. Terence Boylan, Chair of the Lab’s Board of Trustees, and Dr. John Forrest, MDIBL’s Director, joined with WBRC Architects-Engineers Principal John Rohman, construction manager Nickerson and O’Day’s Randy Poulton, former Chair of the Board of Trustees Dr. James Boyer, and Trustees I. Wistar Morris III and Max Brennickmeyer in wielding golden shovels immediately after the Annual Meeting of the MDIBL Corporation and an unveiling of the design plans. Construction of the facility will begin this fall, with occupancy planned for July 2008.

The 15,000 square foot facility has been registered with the U.S. Green Building Council and will provide an environmentally friendly home for the Center for Marine Functional Genomic Studies as well as a research training lab and library. It will be built following the standards set by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which was created by the U.S. Green Building Council to promote integrated, whole-building design practices and recognize environmental leadership. MDIBL has also partnered with Labs21, a program of the EPA and US Department of Energy to promote sustainable laboratory design (see sidebar). The design and construction plan of the new lab emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, energy efficiency, water use, waste reduction, and indoor environmental quality.

The nation’s first Center for Marine Functional Genomic Studies, which uses marine models to learn about the relationship between genetic sequences, biological function, and human health, is currently spread out among several buildings in what is often inadequate space. The new building will provide laboratory and office space for six CMFGS scientists and their support staff. Each lab will have a fluid, open layout to promote conversation and collaboration between researchers. Core facilities in the building will include a Marine DNA Sequencing and Analysis Facility and a new Facility for Biological Imaging.

In keeping with MDIBL’s commitment to educating and inspiring young scientists, the new building will also include a state of the art training laboratory. More than 300 high school, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students now come to MDIBL each year for training in research techniques and to work alongside our scientists. At present, however, groups of up to twelve students must work in busy labs designed for three or four researchers. The new training lab will provide dedicated training space for hands-on learning. In the summer, when students are working with their mentors, it will offer additional space for seasonal investigators.

As MDIBL has made the transition from an almost exclusively seasonal to a year-round facility, our buildings have struggled to keep up. None except for Marshall, built in 1971, was originally designed for four-season use. Heating and cooling systems were added as afterthoughts. In contrast, the new building’s climate-control and ventilation systems have been designed not only as functions within the structure itself, but with consideration given to the orientation of the particular site and our geographic location as a whole. The attention given now to energy conservation and sustainable design will result not only in better functioning facilities, but in long-term savings for MDIBL.

Planning for the building began in 2004 and has included numerous meetings with stakeholders and members of the MDIBL Board, a “charette” to garner ideas from the wider community, and consultations with award-winning architects and engineers – especially in the field of “green” design. Richard Graves, a LEED-certified architect with WBRC Architects + Engineers of Bangor, Maine, is the principal architect for the project. Professionals who have volunteered their time include the architect Robert Fox, who designed the first “green” skyscraper to seek the highest-possible, or “platinum,” rating from LEED.

MDIBL’s new laboratory is the first design in Hancock County, Maine, to have been registered with the U.S. Green Building Council for LEED certification. Because meeting LEED standards for construction means following new practices for site development, waste management, energy use, and choice of building materials, the project will become an important tool for introducing the concept of green design to the local building community. As the first LEED certified biomedical research facility in Maine and one of only a handful in the United States, the building will have national as well as regional significance. It will be an invaluable addition to the resources available to MDIBL scientists and the entire marine and biomedical research community.

Updates on the progress of the new building are available at http://www.mdibl.org/facilities/green_building/.

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