Brown gets approval for 7-story lab building
PROVIDENCE − Brown University is moving forward with a seven-story lab building in Providence’s Jewelry District after receiving approval from the Downtown Design Review Committee.
Construction on the building could began as soon as summer 2024 and be completed as early as 2027.
New York architect Noah Biklen presented the final design of the project last week, calling it a way to bring together interdisciplinary communities.
“The overall vision for the building, our role here, is what it means to make a world-class research enterprise building,” he said.
The new building at 151-155 Chestnut St. is also proposed to have a bridge to 70 Ship St., over Elbow Street, to the building that holds Brown’s Laboratories for Molecular Medicine. The bridge would connect the second floor of the new lab building to the third floor of the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine building.
Renderings show labs would occupy the second through seventh floors of the buildings.
The Downtown Design Review Committee approved the project on Dec. 11,, including the demolition of two buildings currently on the site, and granted waivers for enclosed heating, cooling and other systems on the roof and a height bonus, allowing it to go higher than the maximum height of 100 feet normally allowed in the zoning rules
The building would be 139 feet tall, excluding the enclosed equipment on the roof, according to the plans Biklen presented to the committee. With the “mechanical penthouse,” the building’s height increases to 162 feet. Rooftop equipment is exempt from height limitations.
To get the height bonus, Brown had to include publicly accessible open space and “active ground floor uses” on the site, city planner Christopher Ise wrote in a staff report for the project for an October meeting.
In an email, University Architect Craig Barton wrote that he would not share how much the project is anticipated to cost, citing the “ability to negotiate competitively with potential project partners.”
Two buildings on the site of the new lab are to be demolished: 261 Richmond St., a one-story 3,225-square-foot brick building from 1950 that Brown bought for $513,000, and 233 Richmond St., a 31,344-square-foot masonry building from 1970.
To demolish the buildings, Brown had to obtain a waiver from the committee. The zoning rules for the downtown district require all proposed demolitions to get a waiver.
Parking lots will also be removed as part of the project.
Some of the first floor will be public, including a gallery and café, as well as access through the building to other portions of the site, allowing pedestrians to walk through, instead of around, the building.
Brown bought properties in 2022 to prepare for new lab
Brown purchased 10 properties in the area in July 2022 in preparation to build the new lab next to other properties Brown already owns.
The new lab is likely to include wet and dry lab space, an “animal care facility” and space for researchers from different Brown departments, according to a draft plan released by the university.
The 2022 purchases included the Kilguss Institute, at 200 Chestnut St., which Women & Infants Hospital describes on its website as a 30,000square-foot facility with 15 laboratories that it rents out. The lab space focuses on advanced microscopy, live cell imaging and molecular biology.
In all, Brown purchased the following properties in 2022:
● 70 Elm St., $4.8 million
● 261 Richmond St., $513,000
● 297, 300, 324, 317 and 307 Richmond
● St. and 61 South St., $6.15 million
● 200 Chestnut St., $4.9 million While Brown has been leasing and buying lab space in the area, the new lab will just be for its own use.
Brown is also leasing out lab space in the partially occupied building at 225 Dyer St., a state-subsidized project, as well as the new state health lab, which is currently under construction.
Brown is also an anchor tenant in the South Street Landing nursing-education complex on the other side of Dyer Street, where it has 400 employees. Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School Laboratories for Molecular Medicine and School of Public Health are also in the Jewelry District.
Reporter Patrick Anderson contributed to this report. Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.