• Courtesy of Bruce Damonte

  • Courtesy of Bruce Damonte

  • Courtesy of Bruce Damonte

  • Courtesy of Bruce Damonte

Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, University of California Berkeley

Berkeley, CA

Business Type

Rehabilitation and conversion of landmark museum into laboratory and bioscience facility

Size

95,000 square feet

Through careful planning, extensive coordination, and constant reassessment of strategies, the design and engineering teams fit a new program and energy-efficient mechanical, engineering, and plumbing infrastructure within the highly unorthodox space while protecting its historic fabric.

The space can now be used for cutting-edge research by graduate students, established biotech companies, and life science start-ups in the community.

Architect

MBH Architects

Owner

University of California Berkeley

Sustainability

Certifications

  • LEED Gold

Special features

  • All-electric building

  • 20% better than California Energy Code

  • Energy Usage Intensity (EUI) of 78 kBtu/sq. ft./yr, a 35% reduction when compared to the LEED baseline and 65% reduction when compared to similar labs in the Labs21 database

  • HVAC system makes use of a fully manifolded supply and ventilation air system that provides healthy and safe ventilation

  • The chilled and heated hot water is generated by a modular air-source heat pump (ASHP) that can operate simultaneously in high-efficiency and heat-recovery mode

  • The fully manifolded HVAC design consolidates and simplifies maintenance with single Air Handling Unit (AHU), exhaust fan system, and plant generating heated and chilled water

  • HVAC design makes project more cost and space efficient with N+1 system redundancy provided for each of the systems

Media Coverage

FacilitiesNet: Breathing New Life Into an Old Landmark Building

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Retrofit Magazine: Vacated because of Seismic Concerns, Mario Ciampi’s Former Berkeley Art Museum Is Reborn as a Life-sciences Incubator

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Concrete Décor: Retrofitting a Classic – Bakar BioEnginuity Hub

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Green Building and Design: MBH Architects Shares 3 Examples of Incredible Adaptive Reuse

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Education Snapshots: University of California, Berkeley – Bakar BioEnginuity Hub

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Interior Design: 4 wellness centered spaces for work and working out

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Architect Magazine: Bakar BioEnginuity Hub

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Building Design and Construction: Brutalist former Berkeley Art Museum transformed into modern life science lab

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Metropolis: The Berkeley Art Museum, a Modernist Landmark, is Reengineered and Redesigned

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World Architecture: MBH Architects Transforms Former Berkeley Art Museum Into Life Sciences Lab On Berkeley Campus

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Architectural Record: Modern Redux: University of California, Berkeley's BioEnginuity Hub by MBH Architects

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Tradeline: Bakar BioEnginuity Hub Raises the Bar for Urban Adaptive Reuse Projects

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The Registry: MBH Architects Creates 94,000 SQFT Space for Innovation with UC Berkeley

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San Francisco Chronicle: A brutalist icon in Berkeley is reborn as a research hub

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Billions Flowing To University Life Sciences Centers Seeding Startups, Real Estate Ventures

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Blog Coverage

Bakar BioEnginuity Hub: When design pivots for the future

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