When Hafslund Nycomed, an international pharmaceutical company based in Oslo Norway, purchased the diagnostic imaging business from Sanofi Winthrop, it formed Nycomed, Inc., a fully integrated research and development, manufacturing and marketing company. Its decision to consolidate the U.S. Research and Development facilities in one location led to the selection of Jacobs/Wyper to provide facility and lab planning, programming and design for a facility to house 250 employees.

To satisfy the corporation’s need to anticipate future change, modular lab suites of 950 SF and 640 SF accommodating varying ratios of labs, office and support functions were developed. Modular labs serviced by central utility corridors accommodate a wide variety of research functions. The central utility corridors with perimeter staff corridors and workstations provide traffic segregation and storage opportunities. Lab blocks are zoned for either chemistry or biology.

Nycomed wished to develop the sense of the facility’s diverse community of research and corporate personnel, and it wished to encourage a close and collegial working environment. Lab blocks contain the senior research management offices as well as breakout areas for the departments. Community functions such as the library, conference rooms and lunchrooms are centrally located.

The organization of the spaces provides the Sterile Fill Pilot Plant and vivarium with direct adjacency to loading docks. The remaining research space is organized using the basic laboratory module to fit-out 45 labs and support units. Lab support areas include 14 controlled environment rooms, molecular modeling and ‘labcat’ workstations, several shared equipment rooms, compound library, reference sample library, central glassware washing, and chemical/solvent and radioactive waste storage rooms. Lab scientist workstations are placed directly outside the labs in groupings under skylights.

Central services to the labs include both de-ionized and WFI water, central lab vacuum, oil free compressed air and nitrogen. Each lab is provided locally with various gases from manifold cylinders. The central plant provides steam for heating, humidification and sterilization from two 400-horsepower fire tube boilers. Two centrifugal water chillers each provide 700 tons of cooling for the air handlers. Power requirement for the facility is 2,400 KVA. Mission critical equipment is connected to a 250 KVA emergency generator.