& Technology
Science
Science & Technology
IKM Architecture is an architecture, planning, and interior design firm that has been in continuous practice since 1911. IKM’s mission is to provide innovative and informed architecture that positively impacts the world through leadership in understanding, exploration, and decision-making.
At IKM we thrive on understanding complex technical challenges, client and community needs, and uniting them into a solution that is both inspirational and sustainable. Our architects bring specific skillsets including programming, planning, and design expertise which span a range of fields requiring a higher-level grasp of science and technology. Whether in healthcare, academic, corporate, or institutional market sectors, if we don’t have the expertise in-house, we have established relationships with a consultant base which includes experts in everything from computational fluid dynamics to advanced acoustic isolation.
Krystal Biotech, Inc.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2020
Square Feet: 2,200
Delivery Method: Design-Build
Project Value: $550,000
This clinical-stage gene therapy company uses its proprietary platform to develop effective and innovative treatments for skin diseases. This research and development pharmaceutical laboratory is located in a old warehouse building on Pittsburgh’s South Side.
The ceiling heights in the existing warehouse facility made the project particularly challenging with the inclusion of nine Biosafety cabinets and two fume hoods. A liquid nitrogen system to support the ultralow freezers required for lab functions was also included. Careful attention was given to coordination of overhead services to allow for the required engineering of the space, while providing an open feel to the laboratories and designing for employee comfort. Extensive renovation of the space includes fume hoods, a cold room, lab gas systems, and a liquid nitrogen system.
This project allows Krystal Biotech to continue to develop life-altering gene therapies and refine their processes. The thoughtful organization of the space reduces strain on workers and provides more opportunity for continued collaboration.
AHN Allegheny General Hospital
Neurology Teaching Lab
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2017
Square Feet: 7,400
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $2,130,000
This 7,400-square-foot teaching laboratory was designed for Allegheny General Hospital. The lab is for teaching neurosurgery, both brain and spine, and other procedures including orthopedic, cardiothoracic, pain treatment, and interventional radiology.
Audiovisual equipment allows what is being demonstrated at a central station within the teaching lab to to be viewed on a screen at each workstation. The technology also accommodates livestreaming from several operating rooms into the teaching lab.
The elevator lobby and the corridor leading to the lab underwent finish upgrades and other improvements so that these areas express to those entering that they are coming to an educational experience. Neurological slides are also used as art throughout the space.
The project scope also included a cold room that can accommodate 21 cadavers, a cold room for the same number of heads stored in formalin, an autoclave room, lounge, offices, storage, and women's and men’s locker rooms. This project required the addition of a new air handling unit and separate ventilation system.
Calgon Carbon Innovation Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2015
Square Feet: 16,000
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $4,130,000
The Calgon Carbon Laboratories at the Innovation Center is a place where innovations in the purification, separation, and concentration of liquids, gases, and other media are explored. A leader in the activated carbon industry and with ultraviolet light disinfection and oxidation expertise, Calgon’s labs have originated cutting-edge purification systems for drinking water, wastewater, odor control, pollution abatement, and a variety of industrial and commercial manufacturing processes.
This project provided the interior architecture to house the facilities where Calgon conducts their science research and development. The design of the interior space accommodates the public viewing of most lab spaces, portraying a high-tech look while also providing clean/dirty separation, industrial equipment sound isolation, pressurization of spaces to control dust migration, localized dust capture system, and the accommodation of thermal processes. Ceiling heights were a challenge, so an open lab layout and internal window system were utilized to minimize compartmentalization of the researchers while creating great spaces to work in. A café was also provided for employees.
Carlow University Nursing Simulation Labs
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2020
Square Feet: 6,000
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $1,170,000
Carlow University’s Celtic Simulation Center for Innovative Learning (CSCIL) was looking to improve their high-fidelity simulation labs and upgrade the lab technology. At the same time, CSCIL was looking to expand the bed count in their traditional nursing skills lab to reduce the number of students practicing at each bed.
Beyond the functional layout, the goal was for this project to be the showcase of the College of Health and Wellness. First impressions are particularly important. Through architectural interpretation of the vibrant school colors, IKM created an entry sequence that speaks to the high-tech philosophy of the program.
Designing educational space meant to simulate the real work environment of a healthcare operation was a unique challenge. It was critical that the sim labs look and act like hospital inpatient rooms. Students interact with robotic mannequins in these spaces. The students must be able to complete all of the typical protocols they will perform in the clinical environment. In the new sim labs, students can wash hands, interpret data on patient monitors, provide treatment, and chart data.
Vitalant
One Sterling Plaza
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2024
Square Feet: 13,000
Delivery Method: CM-at-Risk
Project Value: $2,900,000
Vitalant retained IKM as part of an effort to relocate and reorganize their business components. The scope of this project encompassed two main elements: office space and clinical space. The design creates a vibrant, collaborative, and open work environment, alongside a refreshing and welcoming clinical environment that can facilitate operational efficiency and deliver high quality care to patients.
The project team managed challenges such as long-lead items during construction that created difficulties in the final occupancy permitting process. The resulting space better serves Vitalant’s needs and enhances business outcomes, while at the same time offering top-notch clinical services for hemophilia patients.
Vitalant Parkway Center 5
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2023
Square Feet: 40,400
Delivery Method: CM at Risk
Project Value: $10,300,000
Vitalant wished to relocate and consolidate two of their business units into a building already owned by the company. The two business units consisted of Vitalant’s clinical blood laboratories including hemophilia, cord blood, plasma, reference lab, and manual and automated technology labs, as well as a therapeutic apheresis clinic. IKM designed the complete renovation of portions of three floors of the existing five-story building to accommodate the program of this project. The new state-of-the-art laboratories serve Vitalant’s customers, provide training for new employees, and continue to deliver a high level of care to patients, all under one roof.
Carnegie Mellon University
Noonan Pyrophoric Lab
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2012
Square Feet: 2,000
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $1,000,000
IKM was retained renovate lab spaces in the southwest 8th floor of the Mellon Institute into a pyrophoric lab space for Dr. Kevin Noonan that includes flexible lab benches, seven fume hoods, an instrument room, an office, student areas, and a break room.
Dr. Noonan recently worked as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University where he was involved in research for fuel cells. At CMU, his research is at the interface of synthetic materials chemistry, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry, with a focus on catalysis. The lab is designed to provide different controlled environments for the creation of new polymeric compounds for the Department of Defense. All areas are designed for maximum laboratory safety with a hazardous exhaust system added for emergency situations.
The architecture of the space capitalizes on the high ceilings and windows available. The extensive exhaust system required was integrated into the design to meet specific exhausting and ventilation needs while also allowing maximum daylight into the space.
WVU Medicine Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute
Morgantown, West Virginia
Completion Date: 2018
Square Feet: 60,000
Delivery Method: Negotiated Bid
Project Value: $25,000,000
The West Virginia University Medicine
Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute spans boundaries between research and direct patient care. It is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary research, learning, and treatment for a variety of critical neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s Disease, depression, and addiction. The facility also focuses on the advancement of brain research in high-performance individuals: Navy SEALS, professional athletes, fighter pilots, and other patient types.
The new 60,000-square-foot Institute houses state-of-the-art laboratories and technology, including a sleep research lab, Low- and HighIntensity Focused Ultrasound, and a human performance innovation center. Spaces in the facility are organized to foster collaboration between the worlds of research and patient care. By employing a combination of natural, tactile materials and fluid spatial gestures in the context of next-generation research, the architecture of the facility creates an accessible, meaningful workplace for both researchers and visitors seeking treatment.
Carnegie Mellon University Mellon Institute
Collaborative Habitat
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2018
Square Feet: 5,440
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $609,000
Derived from an IKM-led planning study as one of the projects for the renovation of Carnegie Mellon University’s Mellon Institute, the collaborative habitat project evolved from an initial concept to an innovative design to engage science students. The result is a dynamic space that fosters gathering, promotes informal social collisions, and provides opportunities for collaborative research interactions. Originally conceived as a collaborative lab, the space evolved to comprise a gathering room and the revitalization of a well-used corridor. The collaboration room includes flexible furniture that can be rearranged as groups come and go.
The design infuses the space with natural light; interior walls were removed to connect the space to existing light wells to flood the collaboration room with daylighting and views to the outside. Lighting design infuses dark corridors with creative techniques to enliven the space and foster collaborative energy.
Carnegie Mellon University Mellon Institute
Guo Biochemistry Lab
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2014
Square Feet: 2,200
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $670,000
This project included both the conversion of library stack space into an instrumentation and a biochemistry lab, as well as the renovation of an existing portion of biochemistry labs, offices, conference room, and kitchen. The new lab is equipped with both Mossbauer spectrometers as well as a Raman spectrometer and other equipment. Dr. Guo explores the roles that metal-containing proteins play in biological processes. The conversion space had no existing services and had to support not only Dr. Guo’s space, but also a future shared collaborative instrumentation space. Integrating MEP systems into these spaces while harnessing natural daylight and maximizing transparency was a challenge, but led to an end product that enhances the investigator’s comfort and ability to accomplish their science.
Carnegie Mellon University
Mellon Institute Yttri Lab
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2018
Square Feet: 1,500
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $622,000
Carnegie Mellon University’s Yttri Lab project included the renovation of four existing separate lab spaces to create a highly computational lab and research space. The program included areas for students to work, three separate labs including with rooms for mice, and an office. The head professor stressed the need for space to collaborate with his team, furniture that could be reconfigured easily, and fully cleanable finishes within the lab spaces.
The three labs are located outside of the main office and working space. All desks are height adjustable and ceiling baffles were provided to improve acoustics. CMU requested tunable lighting in the office and research space for occupant comfort, and a technology board hangs in the collaborative space. Efforts were made to make this space as functional and comfortable as possible, no matter what time of day or night it is being used. CMU also uses this lab as a showcase for the recruitment of new professors and students.
Curative Lab Project
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2020
Square Feet: 20,000
Delivery Method: Study
Project Value: $3,500,000 (Estimated)
In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, two processes were developed for testing: one testing for antibody production, and the second utilizing polymerase chain reaction (PRC) testing to detect the presence of the virus’s genetic material in a sample originating from an individual.
Curative developed and deployed a network of rapid-response testing centers focused on the PCR method. IKM, along with regional and local partners, developed an initial test-fit of the program in one of Pittsburgh’s newest brownfield-to-innovation centers. In a matter of weeks, IKM and industry partners including mechanical engineers and contractors responded to the call to explore the feasibility of establishing a 20,000-square-foot testing center in Pittsburgh. IKM developed a space plan for the four primary laboratory areas required for sequencing samples for PCR testing. The project included layouts for BSL-2 laboratories with biosafety cabinet enclosures, workspace, cold storage, a master-mix room, and large-scale QPCR testing. It also included employee amenities and an onsite QA/QC laboratory.
Completion Date: 2021
Square Feet: 200,000
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $10,600,000
IKM and our team of consultants developed a new local manufacturing, distribution, and business operations space for a global manufacturer of medical devices. The project consists of 200,000 square feet of tenant improvements in an existing, unoccupied core and shell building. The program includes new offices for the plant’s personal and business functions, employee amenities, and over 30,000 square feet of state-of-theart manufacturing and product assembly space. Production and assembly operations are performed in controlled environments, designed to meet or exceed the ISO 8 certification standards.
The plant, which is more than double the size of the existing facility, increases production capacity significantly and provides space for new program areas including repair and refurbishment, research and development labs, an expanded metrology lab for quality assurance, an open office environment on one floor level with conference and meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, and flexibility built-in for future growth. A large employee canteen, which accommodates quarterly corporate all-hands town-hall style meetings, is included, as well as a large warehouse storage component, finished goods, distribution hub, and 18 loading dock bays.
Confidential Client
Mt. Aloysius College Center for Health Sciences
Cresson, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2016 Square Feet: 45,000
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $11,400,000
IKM was selected to renovate and expand the existing Health Science Building, Pierce Hall, at Mt. Aloysius College to create the Learning Center for Health Science and Technology.
The expansion included lecture space as well as critically needed additional lab space, classroom, office, and, perhaps most importantly, communal learning space. The demand and the changing areas of health science study had outpaced the existing facility.
The design consists of an open floor plan that fosters collaborative work, learning, and research among faculty and students, while allowing the College to strengthen its signature traits of mentorship and hands-on learning. Plans for new and renovated science facilities were designed to help achieve educational goals including integrated science education, adaptable and flexible learning environments, and integration with current Mt. Aloysius programs. The renovated Health Science building enables students, faculty, and staff to experience the connections between health science disciplines and with other academic fields, science, and life outside of the classroom.
Penn State University
Berkey Creamery & Food Sciences Building
University Park, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2006
Square Feet: 53,000
Delivery Method: CM-at-Risk
Project Value: $45,700,000
IKM designed the Penn State Food Sciences Building to allow the University’s College of Agricultural Sciences to remain current with researchers in the food science departments of the Big Ten and the Northeast. Food science programs include research, teaching, and outreach activities.
IKM’s design ensured high visibility for the creamery processing and manufacturing area and the pilot plants while also providing specific attention to flexibility of usage related to technology and equipment. The building encourages collaboration among faculty members and students encompassing the location and design of faculty office space and laboratory space, space for informal interactions, and joint-use research space.
The location, visibility, and accessibility of the creamery is critical to the financial viability of this auxiliary enterprise; however, the area’s design needed to ensure full integration with academic programs so that it continues to function as an academic support unit.
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Engineering & Science Building
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Completion Date: 2017
Square Feet: 63,300
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $17,600,000
As part of an initiative to add a four-year professional engineering degree to the campus’s curriculum, IKM worked with the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown to examine its Engineering and Science programs. The goal of the study was to evaluate existing departmental utilization and define programmatic needs to meet the forecasted demand of expanded program offerings. After completing the study, IKM was commissioned for the renovation of the Engineering and Science Building and Krebs Hall. The renovation was to improve the existing academic spaces that support STEM education on the Johnstown campus.
The project consisted of a 63,300-squarefoot renovation to encompass laboratories, classrooms, offices, storage, student lounges, and club-designated spaces for the Engineering Technology and Chemistry departments. The program included engineering instructional labs, chemistry instructional and research space, classrooms, lecture halls, 38 faculty offices, and related workspaces.
WVU Medicine
Anatomic Pathology & Molecular Diagnostics Lab
Morgantown, West Virginia
Completion Date: 2016
Square Feet: 14,980
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Value: $4,700,000
The Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory assists healthcare providers in diagnosing and treating patients for West Virginia University Medicine and the surrounding region. Specialized patient testing is performed in this laboratory, including flow cytometry, cytogenetics, and mass spectrometry functions. Adjacent to the molecular lab is a full service autopsy suite and morgue with 24-hour access and quarantine and emergency response capabilities. This project relocates these services from an existing facility at the hospital to a newly acquired offsite building location, requiring a complete gutting of this building to accommodate the new functions.
Workflow diagrams were analyzed to ensure efficiencies in adjacencies of critical pathways. Flow of specimen, doctor, clinician, and courier were examined to reduce travel distances and provide a lean design. Finishes match the needs of each area, including stainless steel casework, resinous flooring, and sealed light fixtures as conditions warranted. The facility maximizes the use of daylighting and bounced daylight to ensure maximum natural light exposure.
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