Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Campus Master Plan

Location: Ashburn, Virginia
Size: 581,000 gross sqft
Cost: $ 500,000,000
Completion Year: 2006

Address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2401 Wroxton Road, Houston, TX 77005
T 713 527 0800 F 713 527 8316

Building Program: Computational, Electrophysiology, Open, Wet, and Robotics Laboratory, Apartments, Auditorium, Hotel, Lobby/ Reception Area, Lounge Area, Meeting rooms, Private Offices, Vivarium


aerial view © Paul Fetters

The mission of the Janelia Farm Research Campus is to provide HHMI investigators – who will utilize the facility for short-, medium-, and long-term research programs – with an intensely collaborative environment in which to create and disseminate the advanced research tools needed for biomedicine in the 21st century. The program includes three distinct building components: the advanced research building and its integrated support spaces, a hotel for short-term visitors, and collective and independent housing structures for longer stays.


nightime photo © Brad Feinknopf

The Advanced Research Building is referred to as a “landscape building” because its elongated, gently undulating plan conforms to the site’s existing topography, being literally built into the gentle slope in the form of three ranks of descending planted terraces. Beneath these terraces, the program of labs, support areas, offices, meeting rooms, and communal spaces is arranged in a three-level stack that is horizontally off set to follow the slope of the site. On the lowest level, overlooking a pond, is the main entrance hall, including large areas for social functions, dining areas, meeting areas and an auditorium. The next level, above and to the south, contains a long open plan of lab benches, support spaces, and office clusters. The curving plan of the building dictates the longitudinal distribution of the labs, which can be variably subdivided by movable transverse partitions. Floor-to-ceiling glazing on the northern boundary of the laboratories separates them from a circulation corridor running the length of the building and connecting to stair cores and elevator banks that provide vertical circulation.



The corridor’s fully glazed walls and ceiling allow light to penetrate the labs and establish a visual connection to the landscape, while also providing access to office clusters and the open terraces that alternate along the length of the plan opposite the labs. The third level is identical to the second, although it is again shifted further south.

RVA Howard Hughes Medical Institute images / text from ING Media 310708



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