This fall, construction is scheduled to begin on the Integrated Engineering Research Center (IERC), an $86 million, 85,000-sf infrastructure project on the 6,800-acre campus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., the nation’s premier particle physics lab.
IERC has been in the works since the summer of 2015, and at one time was conceived as a 100,000-sf building that dedicated two of its three floors to office space. That concept changed after a team comprised of Arup and Perkins and Will won a design competition that Fermilab conducted in 2017.
That team’s concept scales back the building to two floors, and includes more lab space. What emerges are “hybrid labs” that, essentially, remove the walls separating labs and offices for the purposes of colocation and collaboration. There are two hybrid zones on the ground floor, in one big open area “that just about anyone can walk through,” explains Aaron Tabares, a Senior Electrical Engineer for Arup’s offices in Chicago, which provides the SE, MEP, F/LS, AV, and IT services to the IERC project.
(He notes, parenthetically, that Arup’s acoustics expertise came in handy to help design these hybrids with quiet features for researchers when needed.)
Brian Rubik, SE, Fermilab’s project manager, adds that Perkins and Will, the designer and AOR on the IERC project, championed bringing more natural light into the new building, whose sloped roof includes clerestories that angle toward the campus’s iconic Wilson Hall.
Rubik notes that IERC’s mechanicals were moved to the center of its upper floor so that more offices could be positioned on the interior perimeter to receive more light. Fermilab calls the hallways and windows around the perimeter of the ground floor “science on display,” says Rubik.
“A lot of the building’s systems are discrete,” adds Tabares. “The form of the building considered just about every angle for the occupants.”
Open, collaborative spaces, designed modularly for maximum flexibility, are IERC's hallmarks.
Keeping the mechanicals off the roof will present a more aesthetically pleasing appearance for a building that, when it’s completed in October 2022, will be a centerpiece of Fermilab’s campus. Prominently featured in IERC’s design is its glassed-in Argon Cube, located at the northeast corner of the building. The Argon Cube is an R&D space related to Liquid Argon (Lar) in support of the DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) and the LBNF (Long Neutrino Baseline Facility). It houses the Liquid Argon cryostat vessel, where Fermilab will test the detector components and advance study related to using Lar cryogenics in filtration and air contamination recovery.
A TIGHT JOBSITE
This project presented an array of physical challenges to the Building Team, which includes Mortenson (GC/CM) and Terra Engineering (CE).
“Terra’s role was especially important, as there were a lot of utilities running into this building,” says Thomas Mozina, Design Principal for Perkins and Will, whom BD+C interviewed last week with Adana Johns, AIA, LEED AP, the firm’s Associate Principal and Science + Technology Practice Leader.
Mortenson has been prepping IERC’s site, adjacent to Wilson Hall, since July 2019. The location is constrained by the formal “horseshoe” entry drive and a raised (8- to 10-ft-tall) berm that had been a radiation shield for a 1.25-mile-diameter Tevatron beam line, the main ring around the particle accelerator, which was deactivated in 2011. Tabares says that excavation was dictated by another, active particle accelerator beam. An electrical artery outside of the building also needed to be relocated.
“We’re kind of jammed into there,” says Rubik about the Center’s location.
The Argon Cube, enclosed in glass for exterior visibility, is an example of IERC's “science on display.”
MODULAR DESIGN FOR FLEXIBILITY
Inside the IERC, Perkins and Will designed office and lab space “with a certain sense of modularity,” says Mozina, in order to provide Fermilab with the flexibility it needs as research evolves. (He describes the design as a kit of parts, and Johns doesn’t think the client will require many more changes in that design, “having already gone through so many iterations in the planning process.”)
Wilson Hall, which dates back to 1971, has 800 employees. It will connect with IERC at the former’s ground floor and 16-atory atrium level via a 20-ft-long enclosed runway.
Related Stories
| Aug 22, 2013
Energy-efficient glazing technology [AIA Course]
This course discuses the latest technological advances in glazing, which make possible ever more efficient enclosures with ever greater glazed area.
| Aug 22, 2013
6 visionary strategies for local government projects
Civic projects in Boston, Las Vegas, Austin, and suburban Atlanta show that a ‘big vision’ can also be a spur to neighborhood revitalization. Here are six visionary strategies for local government projects.
| Aug 20, 2013
Code amendment in Dallas would limit building exterior reflectivity
The Dallas City Council is expected to vote soon on a proposed code amendment that would limit a building’s exterior reflectivity of “visible light” to 15%.
| Aug 14, 2013
Green Building Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
| Aug 14, 2013
Military Construction Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest military sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2013 Giants 300 Report.
| Aug 12, 2013
Decade-long renovation of Kansas Capitol Building expected to be complete by year end
A $300 million-plus, decade-long renovation of the Kansas Capitol Building in Topeka is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The exterior refurbishing of copper over the four imposing wings and around the dome should be complete by late November.
| Aug 6, 2013
Sarabjit Singh named President of ITSI Gilbane and Gilbane Global
Gilbane Building Company announced today the appointment of Sarabjit Singh, P.E. as the new president of ITSI Gilbane (soon to be Gilbane Federal) and Gilbane Global, subsidiaries of Gilbane Building Company.
| Aug 6, 2013
CoreNet: Office space per worker shrinks to 150 sf
The average amount of space per office worker globally has dropped to 150 square feet or less, from 225 square feet in 2010, according to a recent global survey conducted by CoreNet Global.
| Jul 30, 2013
In support of workplace chatter
As the designers of collaborative work environments, architects and engineers understand how open, transparent spaces can cultivate the casual interaction and knowledge sharing that sparks innovation. Now a new study reveals another potential benefit of open workplaces: social interaction that supports happier employees.
| Jul 29, 2013
2013 Giants 300 Report
The editors of Building Design+Construction magazine present the findings of the annual Giants 300 Report, which ranks the leading firms in the AEC industry.