University of Arizona: Phoenix Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building

Challenge

The Phoenix Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building is located on the 30-acre Phoenix Biomedical Campus (PBC) at the University of Arizona in downtown Phoenix. PBC is home to the global headquarters of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the International Genomics Consortium (IGC). At buildout, the PBC will include six million square feet of biomedical-related research, academic and clinical facilities.

The 10-storey, 245,000 SF building is the latest expansion of the campus’ biomedical research emphasis. It houses a mix of computational and bench research as well as a number of spaces requiring low vibration and low electromagnetic interference environments in core lab spaces that promote interdisciplinary engineering research. The exterior of the facility includes a feature ‘canyon space’ that will be used for special events requiring comfortable climatic conditions and low levels of background noise.

Solution

SLR was brought onto the project to provide consultation on acoustics, noise, vibration, exhaust re-entrainment, wind and thermal comfort for the design of the facility. This included wind tunnel tracer gas testing to evaluate exhaust re-entrainment and pedestrian wind comfort as well as site measurements of noise and vibration for development of the acoustical design of the facility.