Room to grow

With a long tradition of successfully translating research discoveries into bedside applications, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) is recognized as a national and international leader in research and education. SMPH enlisted Flad to design and construct the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) West Wedge addition to support its precision medicine initiative and meet growing demand for basic science research and discovery.

The addition adds two floors of new state-of-the-art labs, offices, support areas, and collaboration spaces atop an existing one-story structure. The laboratories are flexible, wet bench, and biomedical in nature with support work in pathology and a genomics core facility. The offices include a mix of open and closed workspaces that support the labs' missions.

Emphasizing transparency and collaboration, the project is designed to provide flexible, daylit research laboratories and associated office areas. The light-filled offices on the building's north side overlook recreational fields and a marsh area, and transparent interior partition walls provide access to light and views from the labs. Creative touch-down spaces and full integration with an adjacent research tower optimize valuable space on campus to accommodate multiple principal investigators and their teams.

The unique shape of the open lab space overcomes challenges associated with the existing structural grid. Other challenges the team addressed throughout the project included respecting existing spaces that needed to remain functional during construction, as well as planning considerations for future additions as research programs and initiatives continue to expand. A planned tower will eventually envelop two of the addition's three exposed facades.