Jax Lab is One of Four

CENTERBROOK, Conn. – JAX Genomic Medicine, a 173,000-square-foot facility being planned in Connecticut to house 300 biomedical researchers, is one of four laboratory and medical projects currently being designed by Centerbrook Architects and Planners. The new facility is being built by The Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit research institution and National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center based in Maine. Construction will begin later this year on the facility, which Centerbrook is designing in collaboration with Tsoi/Kobus & Associates of Cambridge, Mass.

Jackson Senior Director of Facilities John Fitzpatrick noted of the choice of architecture firms, “Each of the design finalists presented compelling teams and initial concepts for the facility. But the team of Centerbrook-TKA reflected a deep appreciation of The Jackson Laboratory’s culture. They demonstrated a strong personal connection and commitment to the project, an understanding of the need for the facility to be a great place to do cutting-edge science, and a commitment to deliver a world-class facility through low-impact design concepts.”

With a total staff of about 1,400 people in Bar Harbor, Maine and Sacramento, California, The Jackson Laboratory’s mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human disease, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community.

Centerbrook also is designing similar projects for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Quinnipiac University, and the Southern Connecticut State University.

At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a biomedical and educational institution on Long Island, Centerbrook is renovating and expanding Demerec Laboratory. CSHL, where Centerbrook has designed some 45 projects since the mid-1970s, is ranked number one in the world by Thomson Reuters for the impact of its research in molecular biology and genetics. It has been home to eight Nobel Prize winners. In 2009, the new 100,000-square-foot Hillside Research Campus designed by Centerbrook at CSHL opened at CSHL.

In North Haven, Connecticut, the firm has completed and begun implementing a Master Plan for Quinnipiac University’s new 104-acre Graduate Campus, which will encompass the establishment of the Frank H. Netter, M.D. School of Medicine as a part of a Health Professions Center. When it opens in 2013, the medical school will be the third in the state.

Also in Connecticut, Centerbrook is designing a new 98,332-square-foot Academic and Laboratory Science building on the New Haven campus of Southern Connecticut State University. It will house teaching and research laboratories for nano-technology, physics and optics, the earth sciences, the environmental sciences, cancer research, astronomy, biology, and chemistry.