Client: Bio-Techne / R&D Systems Location: Minneapolis, MN
Completion: September 2013
R&D Systems owns a building on their Minneapolis campus that was being rented out as tenant space. The building was in poor condition and the company was having difficulty keeping the spaces full. R&D Systems is a fast growing company and found they needed more space to accommodate that growth. Instead of using the building as tenant space, they felt it would be a great additional to their campus.
However, in order to make the building fit into the campus look, a lot of work needed to be done. This renovation project included new labs, offices, lobby, breakroom, and warehouse space for the Hematology Department. The project was constructed in two phases, the first phase was called the Core and Shell package; including all work to the exterior shell of the building along with the addition of new mechanical systems and stairs on the roof and interior of the building.
The second phase was the interior build-out of the lab and office spaces mentioned above. This project was very challenging because of the height restrictions of the Lower Level and the type of mechanical systems that needed to be installed to accommodate those laboratories. This project was also a huge success utilizing the BIM tool Revit to create the Interior Build-Out package. R&D Systems is very unique and uses the Revit model for their facilities management. It was a learning process to understand the level of detail in which this building should be modeled, but in the end we created a very useful tool for their company and learned a lot more about the program to help us with future design projects. This project was a great achievement for R&D Systems and HCM Architects and project partners; Sunde Engineering, Mattson Macdonald Young, Aid Electric Corporation, Egan Company, and RJM Construction. We had a great time working with the R&D team and look forward to future projects on their campus!
Following photo credits to Paul Crosby.