J. Craig Venter Institute breaks ground on net-zero energy laboratory facility in California

by Shane Henson — October 5, 2011—J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit genomics research institute, recently held an official groundbreaking ceremony for their new California facility. The JCVI building, designed by ZGF Architects, will be a state-of-the-art, “ultra-green” 45,000-square-foot, highly adaptable wet laboratory and computational laboratory building on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus. The building, slated to be completed in 2013, will support 125 scientists and staff.

“We are thrilled to be embarking on this new building project here on the campus of UCSD. The building is a unique design that will meld the environmental philosophies of our genomics research with the sustainability goals that I believe must be part of all of our lives,” said J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., founder and president of JCVI. “I am also excited to be back on the UCSD campus, my alma mater, to partake in the rich academic research and clinical environment here. We look forward to continued and strengthened collaborations with all here at UCSD and in the greater San Diego research and biotech community.”

Important features of the new JCVI building include:

• One of the first, if not the first, true “net-zero energy” biological research laboratories in the world, generating 100 percent of its power on site (solar power);
  
• Use of natural day lighting and views, natural ventilation/passive cooling, rainwater harvesting, native low-water landscaping, use of regional materials, green roofs, recycled content, sustainably harvested wood;
  
• Rainfall runoff from the building rooftop will be stored in cisterns to provide water for irrigation, cooling towers, and washing photovoltaic panels;
  
• Roof gardens featuring flowering trees, shrubs, grasses and succulents will be installed on the three terraces to help shade and cool the building.