The Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC received high honors from R&D magazine, which announced its 2011 Laboratory of the Year winners.

Featuring architecture and interior design by ZGF Architects LLP of Los Angeles, the building is one of only four labs to be recognized by the magazine this year.

Representatives of the winning facilities and design teams officially were recognized at the publication’s Laboratory Design Conference held in Orlando, Fla., on April 12.

The Broad building is the first on the Health Sciences campus to receive a silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation based on its unique, eco-friendly features.

A double-glazed curtain wall on the east side of the building allows ventilation in the cavity, reducing heat gain in warmer temperatures and creating an insulating barrier when it is cool. The building’s façade features ultra-clear glass and black granite.

The building also utilizes an innovative chilled-beam HVAC system, which uses water instead of air to cool the space, reducing energy consumption by more than 30 percent and improving the air quality and occupant comfort within laboratory and office areas.

During the October 2010 dedication ceremony, USC president C. L. Max Nikias acknowledged the beauty of the five-story building, but said the most important stories will be the ones that play out beyond its walls in the form of lives transformed through new treatments, discoveries and innovations.

“This new center carries out our promise to society,” Nikias said. “In the future, historians will search for the turning point in the age of medicine and biology, and when they do, they will look to this place. They will look to this time. They will look to this CIRM Center and they will look to Eli and Edythe Broad.”

Eli and Edythe Broad, the building’s namesakes and primary donors, gave $30 million toward its development, which stands as one of the largest gifts given to the Keck School of Medicine of USC in recent years.

Originally conceived in 2005, the project is the product of a public-private partnership between the Keck School, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and California’s voter-created California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC is a cornerstone in the biomedical research corridor on USC’s Health Sciences campus that includes the Zilkha Neurogentic Institute, the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital, and USC University Hospital.

Now in its 44th year, the Laboratory of the Year award recognizes innovative designs, materials and construction for laboratory facilities. The judging panel consisted of architects, lab planners, construction project managers, a vendor representative from the Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association and the editors of R&D and Laboratory Design Newsletter.

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