 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Molecular Foundry
 |
|
|
Winner of LEED Gold Rating! First-place winner of the Sustainable Industry Buildings Council "Beyond Green 2007 High Performance Building Award" The Molecular Foundry: 94,500 square feet, six stories, $67 million construction cost. Note native redwood trees in foreground. |
|
The Molecular Foundry is a state-of-the-art 6-story, 94,500 square-foot, $67 million (plus $18 million for research equipment) User Facility for Nanoscale Materials, dedicated to supporting research in nanoscience by researchers from institutions around the world. The facility—completed in early 2006—supports users in nanolithography, organic nanostructures, inorganic nanostructures, biological nanostructures, the theory and simulation of nanostructures, and the imaging and manipulation of nanostructures. Users from academia, government and industrial laboratories with funded projects may write proposals requesting free access to the state-of-the-art instruments or techniques housed in the Foundry or to the highly skilled staff. From an energy- and water-management standpoint, this is a remarkable project in that it embodies best practices in the three major “high-tech” facility types, specifically wet and dry laboratories, a cleanroom, and a data center. Each of these spaces is highly resource-intensive and poses greater sustainability challenges than ordinary spaces, and it is rare to find all three facility types under one roof. This project is the most comprehensive “Green” building constructed in LBNL’s site’s 75-year history, and the first to achieve a U.S. Green Building Council “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) certification (Gold). The facility has among the lowest electricity intensities of 56 projects currently included in the Labs21 benchmarking database. The facility produces 85% fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than a conventional facility meeting the ASHRAE 90.1 energy standards. Thanks to right-sizing of the mechanical systems, all of this was achieved at no net cost compared to typical practice.