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The cover of STRUCTURE magazine

BBH Wins Structural Engineering Excellence Award from STRUCTURE Magazine

Congratulations to Forell Elsesser, the engineering firm contracted for the seismic retrofit that turned the former Berkeley Art Museum from a structural liability to the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, a robust building home to the Bakar Labs incubator! Read post
A bench along one of BBH's custom angled exterior concrete walls

Retrofitting a Classic – Bakar BioEnginuity Hub

Every aspect of our building is innovative! “What we ended up with was this really cool system of ‘stealth’ looking concrete walls,” Price explains. “They had extreme angles – from 45 degrees to 60 degrees, that were top-cast finished with an EcoSand final finish.” Being large stretches of concrete, there was also concern about skateboarders, so a custom stainless-steel system of skateboard deterrence was designed to replicate the human genome and installed on the face of the battered walls. Read post
Photo of the Bakar Labs lobby, skylight, and part of the main office floor

BBH Wins 2022 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation

The Bakar BioEnginuity Hub is a winner for the 2022 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists. Read post
External photo of BBH by Bruce Damonte

Brutalist Former Berkeley Art Museum Transformed Into Modern Life Science Lab

Seismic performance, water intrusion, and acoustic performance, were addressed while bringing the building up to code. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing infrastructure was overhauled, including the replacement of existing gas service with all-electric systems. This allowed the project to achieve low EUI, operational carbon neutrality, and Net-Zero HVAC water-use, as well as to meet LEED Gold requirements. Read post
Large group of people mingling outside BBH

Berkeley’s Bakar BioEnginuity Hub Opens Its Doors

“We are going to be an incredible model for the country on how to translate technologies to benefit society. Our tenant companies are solving important challenges in medicine and the environment, at the same time as creating high-value jobs,” said BBH Director David Schaffer. “In addition, we at BBH and QB3 are launching undergraduate and graduate training programs with Bakar Labs companies to help train the future workforce of California.” Read post
Aerial view of BBH

Bakar BioEnginuity Hub Raises the Bar for Urban Adaptive Reuse Projects

“The original building structural design is kind of a house of cards,” says Allen Nudel, director of business strategy at Forell/Elsesser who led the structural team. “It’s an awe-inspiring and beautiful icon of innovation, and one of the most architecturally complicated structures in the Bay Area—maybe in the entire western United States. It was by far the most difficult seismic retrofit we’ve ever done.” Read post
A view of the skylights at BBH

A Brutalist Icon in Berkeley Is Reborn as a Bioresearch Hub

“I still can’t believe that I was able to work on the building, be part of the legacy,” said Kevin Koblik, project manager for MBH Architects, the firm that headed the conversion effort. “It was a challenge start to finish, but in all the right ways.” Read post
An interior view of BBH's skylights

A First Look Inside UC Berkeley’s Bakar BioEnginuity Hub

“We always intended Bakar Labs to have a ‘double bottom line,’ a responsibility to select and support startups that have a strong chance of market success and are developing solutions to make the world a better place,” said Regis Kelly, director of Bakar Labs and QB3 executive director. Read post