MIT

Building 46 - Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex

This 411,000 square foot interdisciplinary research and teaching facility is the largest neuroscience center in the world. Constructed in 2005, the nine-story facility features a 90-foot tall atrium connecting three research wings.

Stephen Turner Inc. was retained by MIT to provide recommissioning services at The Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, Building 46, principally to investigate ways to reduce energy use and improve laboratory air flow control. Specific areas of focus included space ventilation rates and in-room laboratory HVAC controls.

Recommissioning services included extensive airflow assessments including qualitative and quantitative measurement of airflows at exterior building entrances, individual laboratories, and each wing's interior doorways within the atrium. Additionally, room pressurization controllers and Building Automation System data was extensively analyzed. The recommissioning work included a comprehensive, multi-phase corrective action plan complete with budgetary requirements, as well as long term preventive maintenance and periodic controls recalibration routines to improve the persistence of system improvements.