Adjusting for Today’s Research: Transforming Old Assets to Meet New Challenges

Facing growing pressure to transform academic research amid technological advances arising from commercialization, while managing new capital and operational constraints from reduced enrollment and research grant investment, academic institutions must consider the embodied value of existing real estate assets. Can an existing campus anchor tell a story of sustainability or resurrection? Can a renovation or repositioning do enough to create the image of a program or institutional mission that appears on the rise? Can other macro conditions be considered and overcome without a new facility?

Using the examples of LSU Health Sciences Center’s Medical Education Building and NYU’s 6 MetroTech renovation for the Tandon School of Engineering, the presenters will offer a discussion forum with representatives of the LSU research community and the NYU Tandon Planning team to discuss these challenges and more. The session will examine how the team introduced daylight, expanded research capacity within the building footprint, modernized aging infrastructure, and created collaboration space, and how these project examples met direct functional needs or planning concepts, with social, building performance, and financial strategies addressed along the way.

Learning objectives:
1. Evaluate strategies for modernizing aging laboratory infrastructure while maintaining safe research operations.
2. Identify approaches for phased renovation that minimize disruption to ongoing scientific research and protect occupants.
3. Compare methods for integrating contemporary MEP and life-safety systems into existing laboratory buildings.
4. Gain applicable lessons learned to improve flexibility, resilience, and long-term laboratory performance.