Harvard renovates building to create new labs for stem-cell research

A gut renovation of the Sherman Fairchild building this fall will yield 62,000 square feet of space for 275 investigators dedicated to stem-cell research, including faculty members, graduate students, technicians, postdoctoral fellows, and research assistants. The high-density open labs--211 net square feet per work station--are part of a design philosophy intended to foster collaboration that carries over from the unbuilt Allston science complex. When the $65-million to $70-million project is complete in the fall of 2011, there will be 16 faculty investigators engaged in stem-cell and regenerative biology in Cambridge here and in the adjacent Bauer Laboratory.