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Crime Lab Design
Past grants and the anticipation of a fresh pipeline of federal funds (see
page 1) is fueling increased activity in the refurbishment of existing forensic
laboratories and construction of new and larger ones. In addition, the tidal
wave of evidence to be processed, triggered by advances in DNA technology, is
challenging crime lab directors to increase capacity and sometimes do more with
less — at least for now.
To state that constructing a forensic facility is complicated would be a gigantic
understatement. To help crime lab directors get a grasp on such an undertaking,
the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice assembled
experts from across the country who were tasked with developing a set of guidelines.
“Forensic Laboratories: Handbook for Facility Planning, Design, Construction
and Moving” was born in 1998 from the work of this think-tank and provides a
comprehensive guide and practical checklist for the planning process.
One of the most important concepts to remember, the handbook emphasizes, is
that the measure of a forensic lab’s success is how well it meets the current
and future needs of its occupants — especially in light of the numerous special
considerations involving environmental health and safety, as well as operational
efficiency, hazardous materials handling, adaptability, cost issues, and the
security and preservation of evidence in an uncontaminated state.
Ken Mohr, a principal of design firm Health, Education + Research Associates.
(HERA) — which provides architectural design services from the lab perspective
— agrees that crime labs are some of the most intricate projects space planners
and architects encounter, and require special knowledge of the paper trail —
and the funding situation — long before the pencil hits the blueprint.
“Lab directors frequently ask us for assistance in helping them grab federal
grants,” Mohr says. “Our clients are more prepared to successfully obtain those
dollars because we help provide solid documentation to back up their requests
for equipment, and they can definitely show need based on needs assessments
we have done for them.”
According to the NIJ handbook, labs must meet rigorous expectations. “The technical
work performed in forensic laboratories must be able to withstand any evidentiary
challenge. When detailing the needs of the laboratory, be ready to defend those
needs against the questions that will arise because of the cost involved. Quality
laboratory service is expensive, and the buildings in which these services are
provided tend to be expensive. Cost-cutting that would jeopardize the lab’s
testing quality cannot be an option.”
According to Mohr, “Our clients are provided with detailed lists of spaces
that would hold the equipment, the square footage of those spaces, and documentation
of their existing equipment.”
Everything comes down to the user, the scientist on the bench, Mohr says, so
that’s why it’s critical that before a project gets underway, the lab stakeholders
are gathered into a steering committee to help guide the planning process.
As the NIJ handbook states, “Staff needs and functional processes are the driving
factors. From the start, the scientists who will occupy the building should
be involved with the design/build team to explain their special requirements
for the laboratory.”
Input from all segments of lab personnel is necessary to provide an accurate
needs assessment. Mohr says it’s a necessary sacrifice for crime lab personnel
who already are strapped for time. “The tough thing with every project is asking
lab folks to give of their own personal time,” he adds. “The worst that can
happen, is congratulations, you’ve been awarded the project, and you come back
in six months to learn that the design team is working in a vacuum. That will
surely kill the process. For example, with one of our clients, the Los Angeles
Regional Crime Lab, we are meeting with stakeholders regularly and frequently
to maintain constant representation and consistency within the project. A project
of this magnitude needs constant leadership during the two or so years of the
project’s duration, so you must have the right people attending meetings. There
has to be a good mix — the crime lab director, an evidence technician, an analyst,
toxicologist, field investigator, etc. so that everyone’s unique needs are represented
and so that the ideas stay jelled for a positive outcome.”
According to the NIJ handbook, “Flexibility is also a key element in driving
a forensic laboratory’s design and configuration. Crime labs must be designed
with the flexibility to support adaptability and change or risk obsolescence
in a few years.”
Mohr says rapidly evolving technology is dictating much of the crime lab’s
design.
“We are seeing 10 to 20 percent of a crime lab devoted to DNA work,” Mohr explains.
“That’s a significant amount of space. DNA-driven units are growing quickly;
much of that space is for personnel but equipment is taking more room, too.
Our traditional lab space module is 10 feet; our module today is12 feet because
now it must accommodate robotics. If you don’t have robotics today, you’ll have
it tomorrow; however, it’s expensive. Some crime lab directors say why spend
grant money on one robotics system when you can spend it on two or three other
pieces of equipment. Even though labs are buying traditional equipment today
with their grant dollars, we’re providing space and infrastructure that can
accommodate tomorrow’s equipment and making it user friendly for scientists
to convert to robotic systems.”
Labs haven’t always had the luxuries they can afford now, and most smaller
labs will continue to make do with what’s on hand.
“Unfortunately, forensic science has always been the redheaded stepchild,”
Mohr observes. “Crime labs have gotten the short end of the stick because traditionally
they have been given odd space, such as an area that was once a 72-hour holding
facility with concretepoured walls and steel bars and someone said, ‘Here, make
a lab out of it.” Crime lab personnel are the most resourceful, incredible people
— you give them a shred of anything and they are not only grateful for it, but
they can get around limitations by inventing new uses for old resources.”
So what’s on the wish lists of most crime labs? According to Mohr, “They are
asking for new facilities, new equipment and additional staff because they have
outgrown their existing resources. Because of their resourcefulness, they are
also fairly savvy. They realize that one source of funding is not going to address
all their needs. They will have to seek other funding and they must be smart
about prioritizing the kind of equipment they purchase.”
Mohr says labs also want functional, efficient space. According to Springer-Verlag
(1991), the recommended ratio of space for each technical and support lab member
is 1,000 gross square feet per staff member, accounting for a prorated portion
of circulation corridors, mechanical rooms, lobbies, etc.
“They have lived so many years in nonfunctional space it’s pathetic,” Mohr
comments. “Forensic lab design grew out of hospital planning, where space was
specifically restrained by certain regulations and equipment functions. So you
ended up with a horseshoe-shaped workstation built around a piece of equipment.
That’s fine, except you forgot the people. That kind of station works fine if
you have one technician and that’s the only job he or she does all day. In a
forensic lab, everyone is cross trained to do everything. We’re snapping that
U-shape straight and creating a linear bench. With straight benches and aisles,
it’s easy to add people because they are no longer penned into that U-shape.
The straight bench gives horizontal and vertical flexibility to lengthen a run
of equipment. Equipment technology changes; the first generation is huge, then
it gets smaller and smaller over time, but then you can add components and it
gets larger again. So even though the technology gets smaller, the run gets
longer, so a U-shaped bench is useless. We also try to avoid dead corners that
are hard to reach and are not an efficient use of space. If we have to bend
the bench, we put in a 45-degree corner to make it more usable and put cabinetry
beneath it.”
Mohr says the biggest challenge is getting crime lab personnel used to new
approaches to work space for streamlined efficiencies. “It takes a lot, as architects
and designers, to help clients realize they need to change their culture and
the way they have been working in the past in order to be open to better functionality.
People and machines change so we must make the space multifunctional and anticipate
this change. We must make sure today’s and tomorrow’s needs are met.”
As a reward for changing their approach to design needs, crime lab personnel
often discover higher degrees of capacity and increased throughput in their
new facilities. However, some labs face greater challenges in the form of municipal
red tape.
“The new facilities are definitely influencing productivity and improving capacity,”
says Mohr, whose clients are mostly state and regional labs faced with extreme
budgetary constraints that sometimes make facilities pick and choose one element
over another. “Providing a $25 million facility that doesn’t have any new lab
equipment because there is no money for it ... what’s the point?” Mohr asks.
“What are the voters passing bonds for? You get a bond election and get a facility,
but the day you move in, that facility is 40 percent empty because you have
planned for that facility to be full 25 years in the future. You can only add
people and equipment slowly because you are dependent on city government finances
and NIJ funding; if that doesn’t happen, you are still empty, can’t hire anyone
and have a lot of space you are using inefficiently. We try to build in as much
into that $25 million as we can that scientists can use if they have the people.
We help them make the best use of existing equipment and infrastructure, but
we are hedging our bets with grant writing and finding more money. No city wants
to see itemby- items lists with a dozen 310 machines. The theory is, if you
can turn a building upside down, whatever falls out that is not bolted down
or hard-wired, that’s equipment someone else has to buy because the project
isn’t buying it. High-density things like shelving, filing cabinets or evidence
are being secured to the wall or the floor so they are part of the project.
That way, it challenges the architects to see how the exterior can be designed
more efficiently and cost effectively so that the lab consultants can get in
all the shelving and storage they can.”
A challenging aspect of the process is actually moving the lab into its new
facility. In mid-January, one of the most labor-intensive relocations of a crime
lab took place when the FBI moved from its current facility at the agency’s
headquarters in Washington, D.C. into a new 500,000-square-foot building in
Quantico, Va. More than 650 lab employees took part in moving conducted after
regular business hours on Friday evenings and continuing until completion over
the weekend, with most moves done within 30 hours. The moving process lasted
through March until the FBI’s 24 caseworking, response and administrative units
were relocated. According to the Department of Justice, the week before the
moves began, evidence from the case-working units was moved via armed escorts,
while a commercial mover packed and moved laboratory and office supplies, furniture
and equipment. To address security concerns, FBI personnel worked line-of-sight
duties during 12-hour shifts to observe the movers. As each van was loaded,
lab employees counted and recorded items before locking and sealing the van
with tamper-proof seals. Teams of 10 moving vans made the 100-mile roundtrips
during the night, folof-sight control of the vans. At the new facility, the
seals were verified and the vans were unlocked and unloaded.
“Designing a lab, building it and moving into it are matched in intensity by
the moving and set-up process,” Mohr says. “Most labs are moving from 25,000
to 75,000 square feet, so there’s usually less equipment to move. They load
up the semis in one or two weekends and they are done, but there’s a lot that
goes into preparation before the move and this must be determined early, such
as the proper disposal of chemicals. You must have a plan for shutting down
equipment, cleaning it, packaging it up, physically moving it, unpacking it,
and dealing with byproducts of the move. Then you must set up the equipment,
get technicians to calibrate it and then test it so that all systems are working
properly. For evidence protocol, as long as the chain of custody is not broken,
you have all the paperwork intact, and if you not changing the method of storage
but simply moving from A to B securely, it’s not a problem. Avoiding compromising
the integrity of the evidence is tantamount in every move.”
Mohr says an average timetable for the design and construction of a new lab
has a lot to do with the size of the facility. “If the average lab is somewhere
between 70,000 and 100,000 square feet, it should take about three months in
programming, another three to four months in schematic design, and about four
to five months in design development. It takes six to eight months to do contract
documents, then hand over to the contractor to bid. Once bid, if funding is
in place and there are no other delays, it takes anywhere from 14 to18 months
to build. The bigger the project, the longer the time it takes.”
Constructing a new crime lab revolves around four obvious activities: planning,
design, construction and move-in, with careful planning and communication essential
to successfully moving from one stage to the next.
Planning
A needs assessment forms the baseline for the project. It documents user and
facility needs, evaluates the existing facility, defines space requirements
and provides cost data. Transforming the needs assessment into a design program
allows architects and engineers to prepare for the design process. According
to the NIJ handbook, the needs assessment must demand full user participation;
provide justification for size and cost; resolve issues relating to expansion,
splitting operations, refurbishment or new construction; and answer questions
as to size, cost, site evaluation and selection. It should also:
- Introduce the new project
- Describe existing facilities and its challenges/liabilities
- Describe the lab’s mission statement and its difficulty or impossibility
of meeting its responsibilities under existing conditions
- Summarize area, staff, site and budget and provide “the bottom line”
- Analyze current and emerging social, economic, political and crime trends
impacting the lab’s work
- Relate caseload data to staff and facility needs
- Describe facility and space descriptions
- Provide designer guidelines regarding safety, security, functionality and
adaptability
- Provide space specifications and technical standards that must be met
- Provide equipment data sheets
- Provide the site analysis
- Establish a reasonable construction budget
Design
While there is no universally correct plan for forensic lab design, according
to the NIJ, functional requirements of each lab — including the needs of specific
scientific disciplines, equipment and instrumentation — must be considered.
The facility layout must support and optimize the lab’s particular area of expertise
and is frequently dictated by differing lab procedures; one lab may do restriction
fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in its
DNA analysis, while another lab may do only PCR. Or one lab might require all
in-process evidence be returned to a central vault at the end of the day while
another lab may allow it to be stored in individual lockers within lab workspace.
Site design also takes into account urban vs. rural settings, site access, lighting,
landscape and parking design with an eye toward security. General building design
considers labspecific considerations of exterior walls, HVAC intakes, duress
alarms, lab tours, equipment and systems maintenance, corridors, mechanical
systems, plumbing systems, electrical systems, as well as general lab design
(to be covered in series Part Two).
Construction
During this phase, all planning and design work is brought to fruition. The
steering team must ensure that all lab needs are fully implemented. The lab
director should appoint an individual as the lab technical coordinating officer
(LTCO) to represent the lab’s interests and to act as a facilitator/coordinator
during construction. The lab director and the LTCO must be prepared to help
resolve any pitfalls that crop up during this phase, including questions of
expectations, quality standards, implementing systems, equipment installation
and coordination, as well as any necessary lab layout revisions.
Move-in
Lab work must continue while the relocation is underway, so a strategic plan
for the move must be developed. When addressing the move, the steering committee
must discuss what the tasks are, what order they will be performed, who is going
to do them, and who has sign-off authority. Tasks can be assigned into categories:
- Continuous tasks address inventory, personnel coordination, security assurance
and training, chemical and biological hazards, and custodial requirements
- Long-range tasks address requests for proposals from movers, warranty issues,
liability issues, temporary storage needs, specialty movers, and furniture
and equipment issues
- Intermediate tasks address evaluations of movers’ bids, administrative issues
and work in progress issues
- Short-term tasks address specialty equipment coordination, notification
of clients/users, refrigeration concerns, and filing and packing issues, as
well as vendor deliveries, rehearsals and walk-throughs
- Immediate tasks address monitoring of movers, equipment audits, security
compliance, and integrity of evidence transfer audits
- Post-move tasks address equipment set-up, damage and breakage, discarding
used materials, conducting tracking systems and quality assurance audits,
and creating a new facilities manual
- Establishing a reasonable and realistic timetable for the move is essential,
as is a plan to cover any contingencies.
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