Chasing Discovery

Ingenuity unleashed

Nobody can predict when a breakthrough idea will emerge, but we can take clear steps to help people discover them faster and more frequently. There’s clear evidence that design innovation can accelerate discovery. We’re committed to helping others activate unleashed potential across everything they do.

We have an unquenchable thirst for new ideas. Whether creating leading-edge labs for new generations of scientists, innovation hangars to advance entrepreneurship or research hubs for the eradication of Alzheimer's, cancer and other diseases, we design daring solutions where breakthroughs happen.

Discovery is always out there. And nothing excites us more than unleashing it ourselves and helping others drive industry-defining innovation.

Testimonials

  • Accelerating discovery is in design's DNA. We're always helping organizations with central questions around how they can bring people together more intentionally, how they can inspire people to feel healthy and develop breakthrough ideas. Finding new answers to these questions motivates me and our team each day.

    Stephen Blair
    Stephen Blair, PE, LEED AP Science & Technology Director
  • The needs of our communities are always evolving. So, design can't be for what is now, it must be for what is next. This means designers can't be static in our thinking. We need to always commit to surfacing new ideas, designing new types of solutions and seeking design discoveries. These discoveries are always out there. Always possible. We pride ourselves on the creative courage it takes to push our clients and ourselves to find them.

    Dpolzin
    David Polzin, AIA, LEED AP Design Executive Director
  • When I have the opportunity to work with some of the top researchers across the country, I know I’m making a difference through design. Transformative science environments can fuel life-changing breakthroughs for potentially millions of people and that is incredibly motivating.

    Charu McDermott
    Charu McDermott Science & Technology

Matters of discovery

35%

Biotech companies are realizing annual increases in revenue around 35%. Fueling this growth is vaccine and antiviral innovation, favorable government initiatives and rising R&D investment among other key factors.


Our Alicia Pandimos Maurer recently spoke with the Inside Biotech podcast about this topic.

Alicia discusses the design opportunities she sees, and touches on an array of topics across genetics, gene and cell therapy, personalized medicine, microbiology, cell culture, sequencing and more.

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1/4

The future of treating diseases is getting personal. In 2020, personalized medicines made up 1/4 of the new drugs approved by the FDA.


For cancer patients, time is everything. At the Novartis-Penn Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies, optimized design decisions reduce the time to develop therapies for each patient by 50%.

By improving the layout and organization of the laboratory environment, the optimized space significantly reduces the time it takes to create the “hunter cells” for one patient. At the outset of this effort, it took an entire month to tackle this. Now it takes only two weeks.

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8%

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2019-29 projections show STEM jobs are expected to grow 8% by 2029 compared with 3.7% for all occupations.


How can colleges and universities keep up with this explosive growth while creating nurturing and inviting environments for a diverse STEM workforce of the future?

We've found that part of the challenge is that many conversations start and end with the technical requirements of STEM education. What isn’t often considered is how to create and nourish a STEM culture focused on the whole student and the experiences they need to thrive both academically and socially.


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Our actions

Unleashing discovery starts within our figurative walls. We're deeply committed to providing the structures, workplaces and resources that empower our people to discover at will. Through these means we're transforming innovation and breakthroughs from actions into culture.

Chasing Discovery is one of our firm's ambitions, inspiring us to elevate design's impact on the world.