Vivarium
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Long Island City, NYC, NY
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center hired daSILVA Architects to renovate and convert an existing warehouse building to a laboratory holding facility. Implementing the drastic change in program from a former bakery and motor shop to a research and development laboratory with sterile environment protocols was challenging. daSILVA performed extensive field investigations to determine the feasibility of the new program.
The building consists of two 15,000 SF lower floors and a 5,000 SF third level. Two new elevators separate clean and dirty equipment circulation. The renovated building has rooms containing eight micro-isolator racks apiece, as well as a new transgenic laboratory for research and development. A mechanical system delivering highly filtered “once-through” air dictated the placement of custom mechanical units on top of the building.
daSILVA also assisted the client in selection and layout of the equipment for a new cage washing facility that occupies the bulk of the lower level. The upper level of the building houses offices and a molecular biology laboratory. Locker rooms provide a transition between environmentally isolated space and non-isolated areas.