We hope to design a page that will benefit everyone who is engaged in renovation and new construction of science laboratory space and scientific materials management. Here are links and photos and related experience outlining some BEST PRACTICES and other great ideas that we can share within the profession.
Submissions can be sent to
Jeff Your, CSMM at
jyour@jcu.edu, who is the Manager of Central
Scientific Stores at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio.
Views of Proposed
Science Building at
JCU
Present Science Building at JCU
(Charles and Helen Dolan Center
for
(James A Bohannon Science Center)
Science and Technology)
Watch the progress on the Dolan Center construction
Tour the Chemistry Dept at JCU
6/01
"Designing a Science Building to be Functional", by Michael Chejlava, Lafayette College in Easton, PA. A treatise on laboratory design. http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~chejlavm/design/design1.htm 3/01
Oberlin College is building a new
Science Center. Plans, drawings,
progress reports and more.
View it online here.
Also, be sure to visit the
Adam Joseph Lewis Center
for Environmental Studies, a 'green' building completed January 2000.
Includes a photo
gallery. 1/01
Swiki Anderson and Associates website - Consulting Mechanical, Electrical and Instrumentation Engineers, particularly for laboratory design. 8/00
Peggy Bagnoli, Environmental Engineer, EPA New England
bagnoli.peggy@epa.gov (617)
918-1828 recommends the following
site:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/steward/univ/
EPA New England's (Region 1) College and University Home Page
This new EPA New England website allows you to:
6/00
http://www.hhmi.org/science/labsafe/projects/hazwaste.html
The effort so far has resulted in an annotated set of program points, which may be viewed at
http://www.hhmi.org/science/labsafe/projects/principal.html
The participating institutions and state regulators are listed at URL:
http://www.hhmi.org/science/labsafe/projects/participants.html
Dr. Emmett Barkley, who is spearheading the project for HHMI, reports that the results of the second workshop will be posted on the web sometime in May.
4/00
Calvin
College New Science Building Construction page, with lots of photos.
the new building will house the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
the Department of Biology (well, 2/3rds of it), and the West Michigan Regional
Laboratory (a joint venture with Spectrum Health).
3/00
Charley Hager, Property Control Manager at the University of Vermont offers
a peek inside some of their
facilities
for storage.
3/00
"We renovated and expanded our chemistry building about five years ago, doubling its size. Renovation improved/expanded all the labs and classrooms, added an atrium and greenhouse, removed contamination (asbestos, mercury in sink traps, 50 years of spills, etc.). Because we're on the edge of the campus we could put our stockroom outside the main structure. We poured an extra slab and then brought in prefab units. These serve as chemical stores for the entire university. Chemistry has only small storage areas next to prep rooms upstairs. You can see our facility from our web site.
"Best practices that coincided with renovation included:
* centralizing all procurement and storage of chemicals under EHS.
* bar coding all containers on campus
* developing database to track quantities, locations, responsible parties,
etc.
* training for anyone wanting to get chemicals or produce haz ardous waste."
3/00
Tour the new Dow Science Complex at Central Michigan University
Courtesy of L.James Stock III at CMU in Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Jan Mack from California State University at San Bernadino suggests,
" Make sure that your chemical room is separate from your stockroom with
a negative pressure so your fumes go up the exhaust pipe instead of going
into the stockroom. You don't want to be sitting in the same room with the
chemical fumes either. This means having your chemical stores on a separate
HVAC system. "
3/00
Jillaine Maes, Facilities Coordinator, Facilities Service Group at Texas A&M University suggests a Rees monitoring system for freezers, etc.
"...it allows me to check on the status of freezers, coldrooms, incubators
and other "stuff" right from my desk. It is not cheap but it has more than
paid for itself in the past ten years over and over again by preventing loss
of research data and valuable reagents when a freezer starts going bad or
someone just programs an incubator incorrectly. We once had a grad student
who thought she was programing the lights to go to zero when actually she
programed the temp to go to zero in a plant growth chamber. Her research
and the research of 2 other labs was saved when the monitoring system alerted
us to the problem. -80 freezers have a way of going out at 3 am on Saturday
morning and coldrooms are sometimes not accessed for days on end leaving
essential products or research to "spoil". These and other disasters have
been avoided by the monitoring system. The Rees system is always on the job
and calls an unending phone list until someone responds to the problem. I
suggest that you have it wired in just like you would the phone and computer
system as the building is being built. You will be glad that you did."
3/00
"Regulatory and Standard Design Issues for Major Renovation/Construction of Academic Laboratories", a powerpoint presentation.
Author: Suzanne Howard, Boston College
Email: howardsu@bc.edu July,
1998
Other safety PPT presentations
at SIRI
3/00
Laboratory by Design, Inc in Napa, CA
Laboratory Design Guidelines from the University of Kentucky
3/00
Diane Morris, Chemistry/Biology Stockroom Supervisor at Minnesota State University in Bemidji writes, "I wish I had a second, relatively small sink for handwashing, located near the door for the quick wash before leaving the lab. The single, large sink is usually busy, and if my phone rings I have to "bump" the person working there to wash my hands before I can deal with the phone/message."
Mike Garlick C.S.M.M., Laboratory Manager & CHO at Delta College, University Center, MI offered these many good ideas:
Continous circulation DI water to all labs, with an inline micro ohm meter to measure water purity at a glance.
A dish washer that can hold volumetric flasks, and spray each flask through the spindle, with the options of steam, DI water, and soap neutralization.
A prep area that is back to back with Prep / Waste hoods, a flammable refrigerator and shower.
Check out my new Labs for digital pictures, more upon request of specific areas / features.
I spent the previous two years preparing for the move, by reducing inventory, purging old chemicals & equipment from the dept, in advance. That way any decisions had time to be made and talked out, with all instructors, instead of a hurried decision to toss something out while moving. We as a department, reviewed one room a month, everyone was allowed to place red stickers on things not used, and green stickers on things to be saved. It was a great time to pare down, and move only necessary equipment to the new building. We require training of all employees & instructors who'll be accessing the stockroom stores directly now.
We precleaned and removed all S traps the summer before renovation &
construction to eliminate any mercury surprizes that may have been instore
of the construction workers. Preventing the possible spilling and contamination
of the area. As a result we collected 1.2 kg of mercury from 30 year old
sink traps, which was recycled, and removed from our facility safely.
3/00
Do you have an experience or Best Practice to share? Submissions can be sent to Jeff Your , CSMM at jyour@jcu.edu, who is the Manager of Central Scientific Stores at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio.
