Tri-Services Lab on Schedule for Delivery in Albuquerque

Located in northeast Albuquerque, this $86 million project will provide offices and specialized labs for three state public health departments.

By David M. Brown

The 190,000-sq-ft New Mexico Tri-Services Laboratory Building, which will provide expansion space for three public health laboratories, is scheduled for delivery in May 2010.

Adjacent to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences campus in northeast Albuquerque, the $86 million, five-story building (one partially below grade) will accommodate the New Mexico Department of Health Scientific Laboratory Division, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Veterinary Diagnostic Services and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.

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“The building is layered so that, for the most part, each agency or bureau is located on a different level, yet we are utilizing a simple floor plan and durable high-quality materials,” says Ron Burstein, principal architect of Studio Southwest Architects of Albuquerque.

Each agency has a separate entrance and loading dock, but the organizations share a central atrium lobby that will foster coordination. The building also incorporates 2,600 sq ft of training space for staff, forensic pathology fellows and law-enforcement personnel.

The facility will include three bio-safety laboratory level 3 suites, one per agency. Bio-safety level 3 suites call for high containment protocols to handle potentially lethal agents.

The building will contain various hazardous material control areas per floor and will have one- and two-hour fire ratings between control areas.

Public and receiving functions are on the lower two levels and contain administrative, office and lab spaces. The project scope also includes extensive installation of specialty laboratory equipment and related services such as high-performance fume hoods, laboratory casework, overhead service carriers, controlled-environment rooms, small/medium/bulk sterilizers, morgue and autopsy equipment, evidence-drying cabinets and a carcass-processing system.

Albuquerque-based Jaynes Corp., the general contractor for the project, began construction on the five-acre site in May and is targeting silver LEED certification. Thomas Thomsen is the company's project manager.

The five-story Tri-Services Laboratory Building will provide space for New Mexico’s Department of Health Scientific Laboratory Division, the Department of Agriculture Veterinary Diagnostic Services and the state Medical Investigator. (Image courtesy Studio Southwest Architects)

The facility is steel frame with 181 50-ft-deep piers on grade. The exterior skin consists of architectural precast concrete walls, EIFS and a glass curtain wall system with integral shading devices and several types of glazing responding to building orientation and daylighting requirements, Burstein says.

All vision glazing on the south, west and east elevations are protected with a combination of integral sunshades and vertical ribs, and in some places, high-performance translucent glazing panels provide solar protection while letting natural light filter into the building. A two-story atrium also provides ample natural light, and a glass floor in part of the lobby filters light into the lower level.

Thomsen says that some of the steel members for the building are large and are rolled at the mill just twice a year. As a result, lead time for receiving steel was nine months. “This made scheduling and sequencing the project a challenge for our project team,” he adds.

The steel-framed building sits atop 181 50-ft-deep piers on a five-acre site in northeast Albuquerque. (Photo courtesy Jaynes Corp.)

Burstein says that the design and construction team is utilizing value engineering throughout construction to minimize cost increases and that, from the start, his company and Jaynes have also worked together to use building information modeling for the project.

The tight sloping site was at first thought to be a challenge, as was integrating three agencies that all needed to have ground floor access, Burstein says. “The slope of the site was turned into an asset that allowed the building to essentially have two ground-floor levels accessed on different sides of the site.” He adds that while he designed Tri-Lab for simplicity and clarity by rigorously adhering to the structural grid and lab module, he injected drama by allowing the floor plates to break out of the module in selected areas.

He says that as an example, “The rectilinear design of the tower is balanced by the curved mass of the training/conference center at the southeast corner of the building.”

Key Players

Owner: State of New Mexico
Architect: Studio Southwest Architects
General Contractor: Jaynes Corp.
Engineers/Consultants: Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers; Bridgers and Paxton Consulting Engineers; SmithGroup; Working Buildings
Subcontractors: Jaynes Structures; W&W Steel; Southwest Glass & Glazing; Les File Drywall; ISEC Inc.; Miller Bonded Inc.; McDade Woodcock Inc.

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