THE PROJECT
Located in a large office park in Nashville, Tenn., Aegis Sciences Corp.’s new Wilma Rudolph Sports Testing Laboratory represents one of the nation’s most technologically
advanced drug-testing facilities. The forensic lab,
support spaces and corporate offices were created through adaptive reuse of an existing 63,000-
sf office/warehouse facility. The new 10,000-sf
lab is located in what was a warehouse area,
augmented by 8,000 sf of lab support spaces. The
project was designed and constructed in three
phases; the new lab was in Phase 3. The project
was completed in June 2012, with lab construction cost of $5 million and total project cost of
$8.7 million. The new lab houses R&D, life sciences, sports and medical examiner testing.
Tennessee native Wilma Rudolph became the
first American woman to win three gold medals
in track and field events at a single Olympics,
achieving that feat in 1960 at the Olympic
Games in Rome. She was a student at Tennessee
State Univ., located not far from the site of the
new lab bearing her name, and later worked as
a teacher and track coach.
THE TEAM
Hart Freeland Roberts, Nashville, Tenn.
(architecture, structural and civil engineering); Robin’s Nest Interiors, Hendersonville,
Tenn. (interior design); Aegis Sciences Corp.,
Nashville, Tenn. (owner’s project manager); Phoenix Design Group, Nashville, Tenn.
(mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineering); American Constructors,
Nashville, Tenn. (contractor/construction manager, Phases 1 and 2); Southland Constructors,
LLC, Brentwood, Tenn. (
contractor/construction manager, Phase 3).
THE USERS
By early 2009, Aegis Sciences Corp. concluded that it had outgrown its original Nashville
location due to its greatly increased volume of
work. They purchased an existing 63,000-sf,
1970s-era, three-story building located in the
same office park as their headquarters. The
building was originally built for a music publishing company and came with a recording
studio. Founded in 1990 by Dr. David Black,
CEO, Chairman and founder, Aegis Sciences
Corp. is a forensic chemical and drug-testing
lab, based in Nashville, that specializes in Zero-Tolerance Drug Testing, employee drug testing,
professional and amateur athlete drug testing,
pain management compliance testing, criminal
justice, driving under the influence of drugs/
alcohol and post-mortem evaluations. The
company provides a variety of
scientific services and programs
to Fortune 500 corporations,
small business, professional
sports leagues, leading colleges
and universities and state and
local government. The company
analyzes more than 350,000 samples a year, testing for up to 400
drugs.
THE SCHEDULE
Hart Freeland Roberts (HFR)
was hired in April 2009 to conduct a review of the existing building to determine the feasibility of adapting it to a state-of-the-art forensics testing lab, lab support areas
and offices. No plans of the existing building
were available. The process was a cooperative
effort involving the owner, users, construction
manager, engineers, interior designer and
architect. The owner and architect had no preconceived ideas as to how the project would
look, which allowed the design to develop
based upon needs. The design team assessed the
existing building to determine suitability for lab
spaces in the spring of 2009. Working with local
codes and fire officials, along with the fire protection engineers—Phoenix Design Group—it
was determined that it was feasible to adapt the
building to meet the requirements of the building and fire codes and the needs of the owner.
To better understand the workflow and
processes of not only the new proposed Aegis
Sciences Corp. lab but also the company’s office
needs, HFR’s Ed Houk, AIA, and John Coke,
AIA, worked very closely for several weeks with
the lab’s staff. Multiple meetings with the var-
ious department heads defined their program
needs, utilization, functional requirements,
operational/equipment needs and functional
relationships. From the meetings, HFR gath-
ered data on each piece of lab equipment as to
the number, size, utility needs and locations.
HFR provided scaled color-coded equipment
“paper dolls” to allow users to test and deter-
mine various equipment locations. Jeff Wagner,
the owner’s project manager, said that good
communication and developing a functional
program was the beginning of this successful
project.
The owner decided to phase the construction
of the project, with the corporate offices in
Phase 1, additional corporate offices and lobby
in Phase 2 and the lab and lab support areas in
Phase 3. By mid-2009, the conceptual design of
the building was completed. With design-refin-
ing input from the owner’s staff, the construc-
tion manager, the owner’s interior designer
and the owner’s project manager, HFR and
PDG completed the construction documents
for Phase 1 in late 2009. Construction began in
early 2010. As was the case with Houk’s design
of Aegis Sciences Corp.’s previous lab, complet-
Adaptive reuse converts warehouse into drug-testing lab
The open lab space features mobile benches and movable casework. All images: Hart Freeland Roberts
Entering the Wilma Rudolph Sports Testing lobby, visitors are allowed a
view into the lab.
