University of California, Riverside - Multidisciplinary Research Building

Project Details

Project Description

Designed for collaboration, the University of California, Riverside (UCR), Multidisciplinary Research Building (MRB) brings different fields of science out of their silos and into a collaborative, cutting-edge research environment to advance health and science discovery across disciplines. This LEED Platinum certified building marks the university’s growing prominence in discovery at the nexus of life/chemical sciences, engineering and medicine.

With a strong trajectory of growth, UCR has clear aspirations to become a leading health and sciences research institution. With this goal in mind, the university recognized the potential for a research-focused facility that would bring together a range of sciences and create an environment for collaboration among academic, public and private interests.

The five-story building (four above grade and one below) houses over 40 principal investigators in open, collaborative laboratories. Researchers in life/chemical sciences, medicine, and engineering can form collaborative teams to work side-by-side on neurodevelopment disorders, infectious diseases and other multidisciplinary areas of study. MRB also features several, high demand core environments, including an imaging suite, a multi-species vivarium, and an interdisciplinary space for quantitative modeling.

Fulfilling the vision of this building as a multidisciplinary space, the planning and design of the building centers around the gathering and interaction spaces. A variety of collaboration zones are placed strategically throughout the computational zone to promote travel, communication and scholarly activity. Key features, such as the write-up space located along the wet laboratories and casual gathering spaces, encourage collaboration and connection. Visual and physical connectivity in the four-story open atrium further invites socialization and connection between floors.

The design carefully balances the exacting requirements for each research environment, while also fostering collaboration. Spaces transition from focused research and equipment areas in the building’s interior, to more flexible, open labs as one moves outward to the building’s perimeter. Glass walls and sliding doors provide necessary separation of research areas while allowing for visual connections within the laboratory environment.

MRB builds in the flexibility to create incubator spaces and other services as potential revenue generators for the University. It is a building designed for a transformative world of research—an engine for change that elevates UCR to a new level of respect as a growing research hub.