LLB Architects, in collaboration with Charles Rose Architects, completed several projects for Beam Therapeutics, located in Cambridge’s Innovation District. The first project was the design and construction of a 38,000 sf multi-story CRISPR science laboratory and workspace. LLB Architects assumed the role of laboratory architect for this design and created custom solutions for 3 large-scale research and development laboratories dispersed throughout the multi-story space.

Beam Therapeutics, known for its pioneering precision DNA editing, desired a flexible micro-biology and chemistry laboratory space designed around over 100 new pieces of highly specialized, gene-editing equipment and robotics. The design solution relied on transparent materials to allow visual access from the street and to maximize the integration of natural light. The design arranged laboratories and workspaces in a fashion that promoted chance interaction, fostering the company’s desired culture of collaboration. The laboratories included tissue culture rooms, fume hood alcoves, and cold room design, which provided a home for this breakthrough company to, in their own words, “…treat disease, one letter at a time.”

Photographs 1-8 by Neil Alexander. Final photo provided courtesy of New England Lab.