Targeting growing biotech companies hitting their stride — and their second or third rounds of financing — the architecture and design firm Svigals + Partners has emerged as a national leader in designing highly productive laboratories and workplaces where biotech innovation takes place.

This year, Svigals + Partners has kicked off a series of Biotech Visioning Workshops for their clients, which include in-person or virtual interviews and collaborative consultations to help growing biotech companies and their real estate brokers develop a framework for meeting key infrastructure demands as research intensifies and industry pressures grow.

Having worked on the headquarters and R&D settings for such noted companies as Achillion and BioHaven Pharmaceuticals as well as research leaders including Yale University and the University of Connecticut, Svigals + Partners has cultivated a reputation for designing laboratories that serve both scientific research and the spirit of the researcher , believing that each informs and celebrates the other.

“The biotech industry is moving at unprecedented speed, and leading companies need to consider the challenges of expansion and their complex environmental needs,” says Jay Brotman, AIA, managing partner with Svigals + Partners, who is leading new projects in Washington, D.C. "As these successful biotech ventures begin to assess their future, workspace and lab planning emerge as critical factors.”

Known for designing productive research environments as well as a proven "creative engagement" process, Svigals + Partners  has developed an effective framework that guides end-users — as well as realtors and brokers — in evaluating potential sites and redesigning existing buildings or even entirely new facilities. The workshops consider such aspects as:

• Strategic goals and aspirations
• Phased growth and expansion planning
• Adaptability, moduarity and flexibility
• Project constraints and budget parameters
• Scheduling implications

"Within weeks, Svigals + Partners delivers a jointly developed program, space allocation concepts and options, a comprehensive facility list with diagrams, and technical criteria of each space type including preliminary area projections and cost data,” says Brotman, who speaks widely on lab design trends.

The national design firm is based in New Haven, Connecticut, a metro area where 40-plus new biotech ventures have emerged over the last decade. Svigals + Partners has been designing workplace and technology spaces for 35-plus years, with 85% of its projects coming from existing clients based on long-established trust, expertise, and reliability. The firm recently opened offices in Florida and Washington, D.C., building on current and new clients in the scientific research fields.