Purpose-built laboratory facility strengthens Chicago life sciences

Fulton Labs at 400 North Aberdeen is the first of its kind in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood. Walking into the facility is akin to walking into a hotel lobby. The double-height entry with rich finishes, tailored detailing, and a custom art installation leaves visitors and tenants with a sense of awe. The 16-story, LEED Gold life sciences building provides over 425,000 square feet of best-in-class office and laboratory space. It is WELL Health-Safety Rated with a design based on a holistic approach with the primary goal of creating an environment inclusive of all personality types and work styles. A balance of social and private settings maximized access to exterior views and natural light, and a fusion of high-contrast materiality with softened corners introduces a unique design approach to Fulton Market.

Our team provided lab planning and engineering design services to realize our client’s vision: a standout facility custom-built for science to attract top researchers. As such, the campus location was vitally important to this project. Chicago is home to 185 pharma companies, more than 30 CROs/CMOs, 550 device/diagnostic companies and 11 leading bioscience universities. This area is one of Chicago’s fastest-growing neighborhoods and is poised for development and opportunity.

As a purpose-built life science building the project had the opportunity to provide some of the first speculative space in Chicago that could meet the stringent requirements of labs. Every aspect of the design was considered to deliver the most flexible and conducive environment for a range of wet and dry lab spaces. The nearly column-free floor plates provide ultimate planning flexibility for both labs and offices and 15’ floor-to-floor heights allow for increased infrastructure space while maintaining generous ceiling heights. The building structure is arranged on an 11’ lab module and meets the high VC-A criteria optimal for labs reducing the need for mitigating apparatus. Once-through airflow serves the lab spaces and ample exhaust capacity allows for intensive chemistry labs. Increased electrical capacity, access to common lab air systems and shared chemical storage on grade all make Fulton Labs at 400 N Aberdeen a world-class lab building.