Delaware Innovation Space Renovations
Delaware Innovation Space
The Delaware Innovation Space (DIS) supports the development and growth of small-to-medium sized technical companies by providing a wide range of facility and programmatic elements for early stage, start-up companies. DIS comprises almost 150,000 SF of chemistry and biotech laboratory space located on the famed DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. The DIS buildings were originally designed and built in the latter part of the 20th Century and much has changed in the subsequent years as it relates to the fast-paced and collaborative work environment of today.
The project demonstrates that DIS is an accelerator space positioned to uniquely support newly formed small and medium sized companies focused on biotechnology, chemistry and materials research, by creating dynamic work environments that speaks to a new generation of entrepreneurs. While the existing DIS spaces functioned well, they were not designed to enable modern start-up cultures that require dynamic facilities, multifunctional spaces and collaborative amenities such as conferencing and break out spaces. The goal of this project was to integrate contemporary, modular, and energetic laboratory, office and meeting spaces into the fabric of DIS and its’ clients.
The scope of the project involved renovating portions of two buildings to provide individual lab pods for privacy, open workstations for office and computational space, huddle rooms and phone rooms along with shared facilities in cell culture, bioanalytical, NMR and visible spectroscopy, etc. The compact floor plan integrates similar technologies while providing proximity support for more diverse collaborations, a key driver across DIS’ facility offerings. Amenity spaces include a large seminar room, coffee bars and lunch room to increase collaboration and cross-pollination among the companies. The overall goal is to bring a new, modern and dynamic aesthetic to the DIS footprint to support their mission by attracting new deep technology based companies to Delaware.
