Rehabilitating Research: Lab Modernization at Ohio State

The $61.2 million renovation of The Ohio State University’s 115,000-sf Campbell Hall demonstrates how rehabilitation can transform a 65-year-old, underperforming academic building into a modern research environment that supports multidisciplinary science. The project consolidated nutritional sciences research, teaching, and clinical functions into a single facility, creating innovative instructor-driven laboratory spaces, private human clinical research suites, a state-of-the-art research kitchen, and modern laboratories designed to showcase nutrition research.

Achievements include replacing aging building infrastructure and overcoming built-in challenges such as limited floor-to-floor heights and less-than-ideal structural grids that impacted a modular design approach. In addition, the renovation adds a new wellness component by incorporating daylight, providing visual connectivity throughout the lab wing, and offering views into the new skylit atrium in the building core.

Drawing on the experiences and lessons from this renovation, the speakers will explore how to overcome the planning, design, and construction challenges of rehabilitating existing laboratory facilities to support modern research programs and add new value to outdated academic buildings.

Learning objectives:
1. Structure stakeholder engagement processes that integrate the user group into the planning and design of the space so utilities are well coordinated and equipment is placed where it is both safe and functional.
2. Seek to develop a collaborative relationship with an experienced client representative who understands the inner workings of laboratory design and operation. This person can be a valued arbitrator and advocate.
3. Approach renovation projects with a flexible mindset that allows design solutions to adapt to awkward space configurations, ceiling height limitations, and structural conflicts.
4. Prioritize user experience as much as lab utility. Having a functional lab is vital, but good functionality should not come at the cost of the comfort and experience of the researchers and staff who inhabit the space for long hours.