On a Mission to Solve Global Health Challenges

On a Mission to Solve Global Health Challenges

Washington State University, Paul G. Allen Center for Global Animal Health

Laboratories and Research, Higher Education

As a first-of-its kind biomedical research facility, The Paul G. Allen Center for Global Animal Health is on a mission to solve worldwide health challenges and quickly respond to international pandemics. The building, part of Washington State University’s (WSU) School of Veterinary Medicine, advances research focusing on animal-borne disease and preventative healthcare for animals and humans severely affected by animal-borne diseases and pandemics. ZGF worked closely with the university and researchers to ensure the Center’s mission was realized in built form, resulting in a highly collaborative environment that fosters interdisciplinary inquiry and discovery.

Funded through grants from Paul G. Allen and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Center features flexible laboratories, offices, and collaboration spaces for graduate students and faculty that can keep pace with frequently changing grant-funded research needs. WSU’s Pullman campus provides an ideal setting for the animal health facility, as home to the celebrated College of Veterinary Medicine, where many researchers and students have dedicated their studies to the human-animal disease link.

Location

Pullman, WA

Square Feet

62,000

Completion date

2012

Project Component

Architecture services
Graphic design
Master planning
Urban design and planning
Interior design and space planning

Certifications

LEED Silver

The exterior façade reflects WSU’s legacy of brick buildings. A three-story glass curtain wall differentiates it from traditional masonry on campus and transforms it into a modern high-performance building.

Large vertical windows provide natural light throughout the building and views of the Palouse region of Eastern Washington. The curtain wall on the northern façade allows full visibility through the center of the facility and connectivity to the rest of campus.

The WSU campus and surrounding facilities inspired the design of the Global Animal Health building. Located at the southwest corner of campus and the base of College Hill, the building is sited on a rolling hill characteristic of the regional landscape. The building is adjacent to Carver Farm’s Stauber Raptor Facility and Rehabilitation Center, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and the Hitchcock Equestrian Track, along with other College of Veterinary Medicine facilities. The launch of the Global Animal Health facility adds a new dimension to the College and positions the school as a major player in the global fight against infectious disease.

"This school will not only educate students in the increasingly important field of animal health, it will be a hub for cutting-edge research and progressive ideas.”
- Paul G. Allen

Custom environmental graphics celebrate the College’s vision and mission. An interactive video display informs visitors of current research being performed in the facility and implemented internationally. Many WSU researchers expand upon their research in northern Tanzania, which suffers from rampant exposure to infectious disease due to the human-animal disease link.

A home for global animal & public health research

By focusing on basic processes in infectious diseases, WSU researchers are discovering new approaches to control both animal and human diseases. Zoonotic diseases—or infections transmitted from animals to humans—account for more than 70% of human infectious diseases, with a disproportionate impact in the developing world. They can also be antibiotic-resistant, making them difficult to treat. Researchers focus on three interrelated approaches to global animal and public health: vaccine development and deployment, emerging pathogen and disease detection, and control of disease transmission from animals to humans.

The Global Animal Health building supports 120 researchers and graduate students. Both the BSL2 and BSL3 labs are organized into small neighborhoods supporting two to three principal investigators and 12-16 research assistants. This arrangement allows for close interaction between research groups, fueling the exchange of ideas and discoveries.

Directly adjacent to the labs, open workspaces are designed to facilitate communication and cross-pollination while providing direct views into the labs.

Design of the Global Animal Health building required careful planning due to the stringent nature of the biosafety levels. The level of technology involved in the labs distinguishes the facility from other bioscience centers. The second and third floors are devoted to biosafety level 2 (BSL2) research and disease surveillance laboratories. These floors house microbes that pose moderate hazards to researchers and the environment. The first floor accommodates a 5,000 SF biosafety level 3 (BSL3 lab), defined by microbes that can cause serious or potentially lethal disease. The BSL3 lab specializes in diagnosing and developing new control measures for select infectious agents that affect both public and animal health. BSL3 level facilities are highly contained and carefully designed to accommodate and safely support the researchers.

The design also supports surge capacity, allowing scientists to quickly dedicate an entire floor of the building to surveillance and suppression efforts in case of an infectious disease outbreak, such as avian influenza or Ebola virus.

Safety features include differential air pressure alarms and monitors located at each door, a welded stainless-steel duct that streams both supply and HEPA-filtered exhaust air throughout, redundant supply, exhaust system fans, and an emergency generator that can maintain full activity levels during power failures. Biosafety cabinets function as engineered work areas with filtered directional airflow and serve as the primary containment barriers where infectious agents can be safely manipulated in open containers. The area includes a series of anterooms where researchers don and doff their personal protective equipment before entering and exiting the inner laboratory

Daylit interiors offer stunning views of the surrounding landscape.

A patterned bamboo screen wall, inspired by central African blanket weaving, separates the faculty break area in the upper levels. 

Flexible support spaces allow for multidisciplinary teaching, conferencing, and industry outreach.