Pfizer Plant Research Laboratory and International Plant Science Center, NYBG

This state-of-the-art multidisciplinary laboratory facility is situated within the scientific precinct of the New York Botanical Garden's 250-acre campus. A freestanding building at the northern edge of the garden, the new laboratory frames a gateway to the landscape beyond. A crisp rectilinear form is cantilevered on all sides from a central core. The lab appears to visually hover above the ground plane, allowing the landscape to flow beneath. Its organization encourages interaction among Garden scientists, graduate students and post-conference facilities and meeting areas, are used for teaching as well as for formal and informal gatherings. A floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall, running the length of the laboratory, blurs the distinction between interior and exterior to visually extend the laboratory beyond the walls of the building. The complex program includes facilities for such diverse analytic approaches as molecular analysis, DNA sequencing, and comparative genomic research.