From One Building to the Next: Planning the Alper Lab Move

Moving a lab is uniquely challenging. You have to organize the new lab space, pack everything, get vendors in place while minimizing downtime.

The Alper Lab at the University of Texas at Austin is tackling this challenge as they move their lab to the new Autry C. Stephens Engineering Discovery building.

We spoke with the Alper Lab team, focused on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, to discuss some of these challenges and how Hopara is helping them navigate the process.

Can you introduce yourself? Name, role, and the lab you work in?

Hal Alper Professor, Alper Lab.
Mayur Bansal Ph.D. Candidate, Alper Lab.

What kind of research does your lab do, and who does it serve?

Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to solve chemical engineering problems.

How many instruments do you have?

150 instruments.

We understand that you’re in the process of moving the lab. What motivated the decision to move?

A new building will be the home of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and Hildebrand Department of Petroluem and Geosystems Engineering. The two departments have shared space in their current building for more than 4 decades. The modern upgrade was necessary, and welcomed.

What are some of the challenges involved in moving an entire lab?

Organizing the new lab space, packing everything, getting vendors in place, and reducing the amount of downtime.

How does an architecture firm support you throughout the process? What parts of the planning process can they help with, and what decisions or challenges do you still need to figure out yourselves?

They helped by creating a rough map of where things could go, but they weren’t really able to account for how a lab actually works and how it should be organized. They mainly placed things where they fit.

How does a visual planning tool like Hopara help you address some of these challenges? Has Hopara changed the way you collaborate or make decisions during the move? If so, how?

Hopara helped us fully visualize what a new lab could look like and understand how the space would be used. It allowed us to reorganize the lab in a way that made sense for our workflow. It also helped us share the plan with everybody in a very readable way, making it easier for the team to provide comments and notes.

Why is it difficult to manage this information and planning process using traditional project management tools and spreadsheets?

They don’t really allow for visualization, and there are always things that get missed or aren’t properly placed.

You can learn more about the Alper Lab here