The program was for a clinical and basic sciences research facility which would include research laboratories, program offices, and classrooms for collaborative research projects among regional clinicians and basic sciences faculty. NEOUCOM is a regional medical school for a consortium of universities: The University of Akron, Youngstown State University, and Kent State University. Users of the facility include school faculty as well as researchers from member campuses. Key to the program was the provision of not only state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, but an environment that would stimulate collaborative thinking and problem solving. As well, the client desired a signature building which would complete and establish a design focus for the campus.

The existing campus was comprised of a c-shaped configuration of buildings located on a high site in a rural setting.

The wing-shaped roof unifies the building while creating a dramatic new profile. On the elevation facing the existing campus, the structure expresses its palette and materials (warm terra cotta brick). On the north elevation, extensive glazing and a sleek white facade establish a dramatic, contemporary expression appropriate to a research institution. An orderly grid of vertical exhaust stacks heightens this expression and defines the interior grid, as well.

The laboratory facilities are organized according to current trends in research facility design: those requiring a high level of environmental control are located in the interior of the building; those requiring less environmental control are on the exterior. Benefiting from even, north lighting, labs along the north elevation have large windows, which also provide views of the surrounding vista. Individual laboratory units can be sectioned off depending on the type of research being conducted.

The lab corridors are open at both ends to daylight views. Alcoves with marker boards in the corridors encourage exchange of ideas between researchers.