Eddy is downright giddy about Janelia’s data-processing capacity. “We have 1,000 processors here—more power here than we had in St. Louis—and the capacity to add 10 times more. And the system is running smoothly,” he says. “When I was in academia, we had our own fiefdoms and had to make alliances to build infrastructure, which was a tremendous time drag.” Here, he doesn’t have to think about civil engineering or building an IT team because a strong system already exists. “This place could be a model for universities on how to run a high-performance computing system.”

			The main auditorium seats 250. View Full Image

Entering the landscape building, visitors first see the meeting and break out spaces. “It’s somewhat akin to walking into a conference facility, one that is very gracious and open—and has laboratories in it,” says McGhee. “But you would never have a lab building with those elements if it didn’t have a larger mission.”

Part of what this building does is reach outside, says McGhee. “Bringing scientists in for meetings makes the campus more scientifically robust. That’s why there are very good meeting facilities and housing for guests, and why it doesn’t feel, when you walk in, like a research building. It feels like something else.”

			Common areas that encourage interaction among scientists are plentiful. View Full Image

Judging by the positive buzz heard at the first scientific meeting held at Janelia in September, the “feel” of the building is right on the mark. Says McGhee, “We’ve all worked hard on this, not because we thought we had to design a building but because it has to be right.”

Photos: Paul Fetters

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