Georgia Tech Krone Engineered Biosystems Building

This article appeared in the November 2018 issue of ARCHITECT:

This lab building at Georgia Tech is a case study in how to turn a resource-intensive typology into a resource producer.

Most students at Georgia Institute of Technology probably spend their entire academic careers unaware that their university, on the northern edge of downtown Atlanta, sits at the headwaters of the city’s water system. In fact, when Texas-based Lake|Flato and Atlanta–based Cooper Carry began work on the new Engineered Biosystems Building for the campus, it discovered that part of the system originates as an underground stream located in what would someday be the project’s basement.

Rather than deal with the stream as an inconvenience, the firm incorporated it into an innovative approach to water sustainability, capturing water from the stream into the building’s water system. As a result, the structure, whose laboratories concentrate on cell therapies and chemical biology and use an enormous amount of water, actually produces a net surplus of water—making the building an active participant in sustainability for the larger campus. “We had the luxury of leveraging the ecological characteristics of the site and the area adjacent to it to create a story about how it all relates to the rest of the campus,” says Ryan Jones, AIA, an associate partner at the Lake|Flato.

The found stream literally reshaped Lake|Flato’s plan for the building: “The original design was intended to take up an entire block on campus,” Jones says. “When we uncovered the stream, that gave us the inspiration to create a thinner footprint, one that created daylit spaces and common areas.”

A conventional solution would have been to simply redirect the stream around the building and into the city’s storm drains. Instead, the firm created a system to collect the water and convey it, via pipes, to a 10,000-gallon clean-water cistern; overflow from the cistern feeds a fountain and a runnel alongside the building. That runnel then passes through a rain garden and into two adjacent wetlands. “The runnel is a representation of the historic stream that got buried over by decades of development,” Jones says.

With the stream as inspiration, Jones says, the designers wanted to take things further. Preliminary calculations found significant sources of excess water in air-conditioning condensate, foundation dewatering, and rainwater. The firm created a separate system for capturing that as well—all water that, in a conventional design, would likewise be sent into the city’s storm drains.

The collected water is used to flush toilets, which feed into a dirty-water cistern, where it is filtered. That water, and any surplus, is then fed toward the larger of the two adjacent wetlands.

Because so much of the system depends on the natural flow of water from the site, in the form of rainwater collection and water coming from the stream, the water level in the runnel varies significantly—sometimes, after a storm, it surges; at other times, it is just a trickle. “Water features are notorious for not working, but it’s not a problem here because we don’t have many mechanical parts,” Jones says. “The fluctuation is actually interesting. It communicates how the building is working.”

Such variation is a fact that Lake|Flato welcomes—it makes visible the building’s relationship to the environment. “Our goal is to create something so contextual, so welcome in its community, that you can’t imagine the site without it, even just a few years after it is completed,” Jones says.

Even though only 3 percent of the building is public, Jones said the open space in front of it, because it sits along the runnel and the wetlands, has become a gathering spot for members of the campus and the general public. “Every time I go there,” he says, “that 3 percent is filled with people who have no need to go into the building. The other day it was a mom’s group, drinking coffee”—proof, if he needed it, that sustainable design is not just good for the environment, but for the community too.

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Project Credits
Project: Georgia Tech Krone Engineered Biosystems Building, Atlanta
Client: Georgia Institute of Technology
Architect: Cooper Carry, Atlanta, and Lake|Flato Architects, San Antonio, Texas . Mark Jensen, AIA, Brent Amos, AIA (Cooper Carry principals); David Thomson, AIA,
Rick Fredlund, AIA, Lesley Braxton, AIA (Cooper Carry associate principals);
David Lake, FAIA (Lake|Flato partner, founder), Ryan Jones, AIA (Lake|Flato associate partner); Kerry Phillips, AIA (project architect); Heather Holdridge, Assoc. AIA (Lake|Flato associate, sustainability director); Patrick Burnham, AIA, Sam Vonderau, AIA (Lake|Flato
project team)
Interior Designer: Cooper Carry and Lake|Flato Architects
M/E/P/FP Engineer: Newcomb & Boyd
Structural Engineer: Uzun + Case
Security and Fire Alarm: Newcomb & Boyd
Civil Engineer: Long Engineering
Geotechnical Engineer: Geo-Hydro Engineers
General Contractor: McCarthy Building Cos.
Landscape Architect: jB+a (now Barge Waggoner); Nelson Byrd Woltz
Lab Planning Consultant: Research Facilities Design
Deep Green—Daylight: Integrated Design Lab
Deep Green—Energy: TLC Engineering for Architecture
Deep Green—Ecology: Biohabitats
Food Service: Camacho
Building Envelope: Morrison Hershfield
Environmental Graphics: Cooper Carry
LEED: Lake|Flato Architects
Building Commissioning: Heery International; Williamson & Associates
Cost Estimating: Palacio Collaborative
Wind: CPP Wind Engineering & Air Quality Consultants
Furniture: Cooper Carry and Georgia Tech
Size: 218,959 square feet
Cost: Withheld

Materials and Sources
Acoustical System: Architectural Components Group
Adhesives/Coatings/Sealants: Dow
Appliances: Jenn-Air; Whirlpool
Building Management Systems: Johnson Controls
Carpet: Mohawk; Tandus
Ceilings: Armstrong; USG
Concrete: L&M Construction Chemicals
Exterior Wall Systems: Rheinzink; Morin; Alply
Fabrics/Finishes: Mosa Tiles
Flooring: Stonehard; Nora
Furniture: Bernhardt; Geiger; Herman Miller; Lowenstein; Nimbus; Teknion
Glass: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope; Guardian; 3M
Gypsum: CertainTeed HVAC: Trox USA (chilled beams); AHU; York (terminal units); Bell & Gossett (pump); Patterson Kelly (hot water boilers); Valcan (fin tubes)
Insulation: Dow (extruded polystyrene) Lighting Control Systems: Leviton
Lighting: Zumtobel; Architectural Lighting Works; Lucifer; SPI Lighting; Winona; Targetti; Arcos; Litecontrol; nLight; Lithonia Lighting, an Acuity Brands Co.; Selux; Gotham; Edel; Kurtzon Lighting; Rig-A-Light; Wagner
Masonry and Stone: Cherokee Brick (brick veneer)
Millwork: Artisan Millworks
Paints/Finishes: Tnemec (high-performance coating); Sherman-Williams (paint)
Photovoltaics or other Renewables: Radiance Solar
Plumbing and Water System: Kohler; Zurn; Elkay; SyncroFlo (harvest rainwater)
Roofing: Johns Manville (TPO); Pac-Clad (metal roofing); Carlisle (underlayment); CRS (insulation)
Site and Landscape Products: Lithonia Lighting, an Acuity Brands Co. (lighting); LandscapeForms; Derro; Victor Stanley
Sunshades: MechoShade Systems
Walls: ClarkDietrich (studs); Carlisle (waterproofing); Dow (elastomeric coating)
Wayfinding: ASI Signage Innovations
Windows/Curtainwalls/Doors: Kawneer

Read expanded coverage of the winners of the 2018 AIA COTE Top Ten Awards.

From April 2018:

This project is a winner in the 2018 COTE Top Ten Green Projects Awards.

From the AIA:

Georgia Tech’s LEED Platinum Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB) is an innovative new model for research facilities. EBB challenges the silos of traditional laboratory design, creating a system of open lab neighborhoods that foster engagement. A departure from traditional lab structure, the “cross-cutting lab” implements continuous working lab space running down the spine of the building, with offices and meeting rooms in the wings. Daylight, outdoor views, a water harvesting system and other biophilic elements used throughout the program encourage interaction. Technology and intelligent design work together to create a multi-purpose open space with high levels of ecological performance.

Metrics Snapshot:

Percentage of the site area designed to support vegetation: 61.9

Percentage of site area supporting vegetation before project began: 43.1

Percentage of landscaped areas covered by native or climate appropriate plants supporting native or migratory animals: 58.9

Actual Consumed Energy Use Intensity (Site EUI): 182.06 kBtu/sq ft/yr

Actual net EUI: 180.67 kBtu/sq ft/yr

Actual net carbon emissions: 9,427,148 lb/sq ft/yr

Actual reduction from national average EUI for building type: 49

Predicted annual consumption of potable water for all uses, including process water: 520.5 gal/FTE or 79.43 percent reduction over LEED 2009 baseline

Percentage of water consumed onsite comes from rainwater capture: 11

Percentage of water consumed onsite comes from greywater/blackwater capture and treatment: 10

Percent of rainwater that can be managed on site: 23

Metrics of water quality for any stormwater leaving the site: 80 percent of TSS removed from stormwater runoff

Percentage of floor area or percentage of occupant work stations with direct views of the outdoors: 90.2

Percentage of floor area or percentage of occupant work stations within 30 feet of operable windows: 0.

Percentage of floor area or percentage of occupant work stations achieving adequate light levels without the use of artificial lighting: 15 percent >300 lux at 3pm March 21

Is this project a workplace? Yes.

How many occupants per thermal zone or thermostat: 5

Occupants who can control their own light levels: 97.2 percent

Peak measured CO₂ levels during full occupancy: 588ppm

Annual daylighting performance: 35 of regularly occupied area achieving at least 300 lux at least 50 percent of the annual occupied hours.