The requirements include that the labs are broken up into three use zones; wet benches, instrumentation benches and a contained recitation write-up area, which is separated from the rest of the lab by a glass partition. The glass partition allows visual access between the recitation and bench areas while promoting increased safety in the lab environment.

The design team incorporated flexible future growth options into the labs to expand and change as new teaching strategies develop. The recitation setup can be reconfigured to permit the teaming of work tables to encourage student interaction. The instrumentation bench utilizes the use of probe technology for material and compound characterization, while the wet bench is used for various teaching procedures and experiments.

Construction Cost

$3.2 Million

Completion Date

2012

Building Area

8,667 SF

Awards

AIA Pittsburgh 2012 Excellence in Interior Architecture, Honor Award
AIA Pittsburgh 2012 People's Choice Award

The home of the Pitt Chemistry Department is a 150,000 sf., 14-story, IBC-designated “H” use group building called the Chevron Science Center. Between 2008 and 2018, R3A designed renovations for 85% of the research and instructional laboratory facilities in the building. As part of this effort, we worked with the university to add chemical stock rooms and chemical waste repository rooms to support the generation of chemical and radioisotope waste resulting from the increased laboratory program area of the building redesign. Both centralized and dedicated floor-level specialty chemical stock and waste holding rooms were provided, creating a repository for the aggregation and temporary storage of liquid and solid chemical waste awaiting disposal.

We also worked with the researchers on each floor to provide adequate chemical storage solutions for both the research and instructional entities that are in the building. This allowed proper flow to and from the chemical stock room to eliminate bottlenecks.

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