J. Craig Venter Genome Lab

The Challenge

The J. Craig Venter Institute’s structural and architectural design were equally complex, requiring expertise, ingenuity and a cohesive project team. McCarthy drew upon its experience in architecturally-exposed concrete designs and green building to successfully deliver a high-quality facility while working within the Institute’s compressed budget and timeline.

The building’s sustainable design features greatly contributed to the project’s architectural and structural complexities. Requiring specialized equipment and ventilation systems, traditional wet labs used in biological research are typically classified as high energy use buildings. Yet, the JVCI project team was charged with meeting U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum Certification standards and creating the world’s first net-zero energy research building (meaning that it produces as much electricity as it consumes).

To achieve the Institute’s admirable vision, McCarthy built the progressive facility with a variety of energy-efficient features throughout the building systems, such as a Lutron lighting control system that senses when and how much light is needed by occupants at any given time of day. Additionally, a cutting-edge building control and management feature enables building occupants to aid in achieving a net-zero energy footprint. The system displays real-time building performance in public areas, allowing the laboratory and office community to monitor their energy and water consumption against historical use patterns.

Featuring high-performance architecture, the building massing and envelope reduce overall building energy use by maximizing daylight. Furthermore, on-site renewable energy is generated through two expansive photovoltaic arrays perched atop the building courtyard and roof. The 26,124-square-foot solar system allows the facility to consume almost 75% less energy than similar laboratories while also shading the courtyard and reducing direct sun glare into both the laboratory and office areas.

The building’s functional, yet artfully-designed exterior is comprised of high-performance glazing, Spanish cedar wood and exposed architectural concrete. Contributing to the LEED credits in the category of Recycled Content, the architecturally exposed concrete walls, columns, footings, slabs and podium deck incorporate 30 percent fly ash, a building material known for its environmental benefits. During initial testing, the fly ash composition produced a marbling effect, making it challenging to create the intended aesthetic quality of the exposed concrete walls.

Given the facility’s location in semi-arid San Diego, the team employed an aggressive water conservation strategy. Resulting from this effort, approximately two-thirds of the building’s water use is supplied by rainwater and condensation collected and stored in three interconnected underground cisterns with a total capacity of 90,000 gallons. The harvested water is UV-filtered and recycled for operating the cooling towers, toilet flushing and site irrigation, successfully reducing potable water demand by nearly 70%.

Other sustainable design strategies the team incorporated into the structure include: natural ventilation and passive cooling, native low-water landscaping, roof gardens, high-efficiency plumbing, sustainably harvested wood, and use of regional and recycled building and finish materials.

The How

Employing Target Value Design (TVD) strategies and fostering a team-focused culture were critical to the project’s overall planning and coordination. As part of the TVD process, McCarthy was brought in early to perform preconstruction with the goal of significantly lowering the initial estimated construction costs while enabling the client to achieve LEED Platinum status. TVD also allowed the project team to determine and schedule adequate time for long-lead items such as wood procurement, which was ordered a year in advance.

The exposed architectural concrete on the building’s exterior posed one of the greatest structural challenges for the building team. Architectural as-cast concrete is one of the most demanding concrete finishes, but adding 30% fly ash to meet LEED Platinum standards makes the process even more daunting. To ensure the desired aesthetics of the architectural concrete, McCarthy self-performed all of the concrete work, drawing on the expertise of the same concrete specialists who developed a pioneering concrete mix and installation procedure for the nearby Salk Institute East Building. Similar to the Salk Institute project, the concrete craftsmen created several generations of mock-ups to refine the mix design and fine-tune the finishing and forming techniques to produce the concrete’s smooth and flawless finish.

The fast-track nature of the project added another level of complexity to the building’s exterior construction. The expedited schedule required construction of the architectural concrete to coincide simultaneously with mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) coordination and enclosure/finishes design. Ensuring the correct location of block-outs and embeds required accuracy as well as timely coordination.

Building information modeling (BIM) technology further streamlined construction of the project’s complex areas, playing a key role in mitigating rework by reducing conflicts among the various building components before construction began. McCarthy managed and hosted BIM software on an on-site electronic plan room to provide a shared, single-source of information for all members of the design and construction team.

A cohesive team culture was achieved by focusing on the five “C’s” — collective, communication, coordination, collaboration and cooperation. All project stakeholders also participated in a formal partnering program with regular facilitated partnering meetings. This high-performance teaming process helped to align goals, eliminate waste, create team collaboration, and keep all members focused on a successful project completion.

To meet the client’s goal of creating the most sustainable laboratory in the world, the facility incorporates high performance architecture, low-energy-use systems, water conservation strategies and onsite renewable power generation. The building massing and envelope are designed to maximize the use of daylight while reducing overall building energy use. Being net-zero for electrical energy, the building will produce as much electricity on-site as it consumes annually. This is made possible by integrating numerous energy efficiency measures throughout the building systems and using advanced building technologies such as a Lutron lighting control system that senses when and how much light is needed by occupants at any given time of day. The building also incorporates operable windows.

On-site renewable energy is generated through the sizeable photovoltaic roof. The project team also pursued aggressive water conservation. Rainwater and condensation will be collected and stored in giant underground cisterns with a total capacity of 90,000 gallons. The water will then be filtered and used for operation of cooling towers, toilet flushing and site irrigation. About two-thirds of the building’s water use will be supplied by rainwater.

Other sustainable design strategies include recycled content, natural ventilation and passive cooling, low-water landscaping, high-efficiency plumbing, sustainably harvested wood, and use of regional materials.