Conference Tours

As an incubator, Hatch.Bio contains multiple lab companies with varying lab sizes and needs, including a fully automated laboratory using robotics. Tour attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at how an incubator such as Hatch.Bio offers flexible, fully equipped labs for a diverse range of companies. Modular design of the facility allows for flexible bench configurations and the ability to add and remove various pieces of equipment. Shared lab spaces allow optimum use of space and equipment such as centrifuges and fume hoods. Attendees will be able to view Hatch.Bio’s freezer farm, where labs can rent out a whole freezer or individual shelves within shared freezers, as well as a shared autoclave room.

ADA Forsyth’s labs feature chilled beams and take advantage of the building’s natural light with an open lab floorplan. Airside and waterside heat recovery for the whole building is implemented along with high-efficiency chillers. The modular design of the labs extends to the penthouse, where lab tenants can customize the HVAC specifications to their needs, such as the vivarium spaces, which have much of their dedicated MEP systems.

The tour will include food and refreshments. Tour buses will leave the Encore at 5:30 p.m. and arrive back by 8:30 or 9:00 p.m.

Harvard Science and Engineering Complex, Cambridge, Massachusetts

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Eastern

Tour sponsored by

Harvard's Science and Engineering

Complex (SEC), exemplifies the

university's commitment to a

sustainable campus, community, and

planet. SEC won I2SL’s Sustainable

Laboratories Awards program Overall

Lab Buildings and Projects Award in

2023, as well as the American Institute

of Architects’ COTE Top Ten that year.

SEC earned LEED Platinum from the U.S. Green Building Council and Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials, Equity, and Beauty petals from the International Living Future Institute. Join the SEC design team—including Benisch, van Zelm Engineers, and Transsolar Kilma Engineering—to explore SEC’s use of healthy materials, passive design, energy performance, and water reuse and resilience strategies.

Attendees will gain insight into how an integrated design process can identify key factors influencing human comfort, and explore the significance, challenges, and opportunities of achieving LBC Healthy Materials Petal certification—including its broader impact on marketplace transparency and material health advocacy—to support cutting-edge research and innovation. Participants will also discover how the building was designed with occupant comfort at its core, incorporating natural ventilation, maximized daylight access in occupied spaces, radiant heating and cooling systems, and a range of additional passive design strategies. The tour will also examine the strategies employed at the SEC to reduce water consumption through reuse, stormwater capture, and wastewater recovery.

Northeastern University EXP

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Eastern

Tour sponsored by

The latest jewel in Northeastern

University’s ambitious science and

research precinct on Columbus

Avenue, EXP offers leading-edge

research facilities and modern,

multifunctional spaces for students,

staff, and faculty to turn ideas into

reality. This nine-story, 350,000

square-foot building, serves as a hub

for the College of Engineering,

housing the Department of Wireless

Internet of Things, the Institute for

Experiential Robotics, and the Institute for NanoSystems Innovation. Key design challenges included planning for future conversion of dry laboratories to wet laboratories, accommodating chemistry teaching and research spaces with high fume hood density, and integrating event space and executive offices for the President of the University, as well as makerspace and high bay zones. The building successfully integrates flexibility, future proofing, resiliency, and sustainability, while maintaining a safe, healthy, and welcoming environment for students and faculty

This is Northeastern University’s first LEED Platinum Building (scoring 86 points). Integrated design between the architect and engineer on the programming, façade and MEP systems, have helped achieve an energy use intensity of of 81 kBTU/sf/year, with 78 percent reduction in energy use compared to a 2030 baseline and 45 percent energy improvement over ASHRAE 90.1. Significant energy savings were achieved using a combination of active chilled beams, high-efficiency air-side heat recovery for AHUs and engineered filtration systems; variable volume air systems throughout; filtered ductless fume hoods in teaching labs; heat recovery chillers; and thoughtful lighting design.

The design team was able to incorporate lessons learned from the adjacent Northeastern ISEC building through electrical metering of operational labs to right-size and significantly reduce the electrical, ventilation, and cooling provisions compared to typical industry standards, which created spare capacity in the central systems for future flexibility. Tour attendees will be able to see how this building successfully integrates flexibility, future proofing, resiliency, and sustainability, while maintaining a safe, healthy, and welcoming environment for students and faculty.