Biomedical Science Tower 3

Opened in October 2005, the Biomedical Science Tower 3 (BST3) is the third and newest of the University of Pittsburgh’s Oakland research facilities. Designed by the award-winning architectural firm Payette Associates, Inc., of Boston, the BST3 was conceived as a nexus for cutting-edge biomedical research and a model for modern laboratory space that promotes interaction among scientists, fosters interdisciplinary research and can adapt to changing demands and priorities. The 10-story building is specifically designed to foster a culture of collaboration among experts in today’s more highly specialized disciplines, who, because of the increasingly complicated nature of biomedical science, must work more closely together in order to advance scientific discovery. As such, the BST3 is a new kind of building for a new kind of science.

• The BST3 boasts one of the few university-based drug discovery programs capable of high throughput screening of up to 100,000 molecular compounds using 20 different approaches and a whole-body 7 tesla magnetic resonance imager, one of the strongest such imaging devices available anywhere in the world, for use in clinical research.

Facts and Figures about the BST3:

• The BST3 is a $205.5 million, 10-story, 331,000 gross-square-foot steel frame structure with an aluminum curtain wall and masonry-reinforced limestone exterior.
• Each of its 10 floors and basement level has approximately 29,000 square-feet of laboratory, office and meeting space. A typical floor features an open laboratory design that provides research groups with maximum flexibility for adapting to new research priorities with minimal renovation costs.
• The BST3 houses 50 research groups comprising more than 500 scientists, graduate students and administrative staff; about half of them will be newly created positions and researchers recruited from outside the region.
• To accommodate the highly sensitive and specialized research equipment, novel engineering and architectural solutions were incorporated into the building’s design and construction.
• For stability, sophisticated nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machines weighing up to 5 tons each, are positioned on bedrock, well below ground level, and on floating cement slabs to compensate for vibration from heavy traffic along Fifth Avenue.
• A removable window system at street level and a permanent crane, positioned on a rail and capable of lifting up to 10 tons, will allow for periodic replacement of equipment as NMR technology advances.
• The basement’s ceiling is nearly 40 feet high to protect highly sensitive cryo-electron microscopes from even the slightest vibrations from the street above as well as to keep the magnetic field surrounding the NMR equipment well within safe distance from the first floor and street level.
• Subtle, but unique, design elements are found throughout the building.
• In recognition of the many ways that mice have helped uncover some of the complexities of human biology—99 percent of the genes found in mice have counterparts in humans— the building’s floor treatments are modeled after the linear sequence of the mouse genome, making use of different colors to represent organizational bands of individual chromosomes. Each floor’s main corridor represents a different chromosome. 
• When lit at night, the color scheme of the stairwell visible on Fifth Avenue renders itself as a DNA double helix. 
• The $205.5 million in design, engineering and construction costs has been financed in part by $42.4 million in dedicated University funds; $18.8 million in foundation funds through the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse; $17.5 million from Commonwealth capital project funds annually allocated to the University; $10 million from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; $5 million each from the DSF Charitable Foundation and Scaife Family Foundation; $4.1 million from tobacco settlement funds allocated by the Commonwealth to support the University's research program; and $1.1 million in other Commonwealth grants specifically targeting this project. A $21.6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is supporting the cost of constructing the specialized Regional Biocontainment Laboratory. The remaining $80 million is being funded through University-issued debt.
• Construction began May 2003 and was completed in stages. The building opened in October 2005.