Science & Technology Lookbook
Who We Are
A Source of New Ideas for Positive Change
FCA is a full-service architectural and design firm. Employing a tailored collaborative process between our clients and employees, we define and create resonant spaces uniquely suited to the needs of those who use them.
We design buildings and spaces that enhance our clients’ lives, including research and office environments that support innovation, collaboration, and creativity.
Offices
New York
Philadelphia
New Haven
Orlando
Experience
35% of staff with 20+ years of experience
Stability
90% revenue is from repeat clients
Size >150
Our Guiding Principles
People
We design spaces for all through an inclusive process tailored to each of our client’s cultures.
Place
We create environments that elevate the human experience using holistic, empathetic design.
Planet
We are committed to environmental responsibility through innovative, sustainable strategies.
Process
We live a collaborative journey with imaginative, inspiring design.
Prosperity We create value for our clients and communities to thrive and succeed.
Our Services
This project transformed a traditionally hierarchical workplace—where space was allocated based on rank—into an agile, unassigned seating environment designed to reflect GSK’s goals of enhancing connectivity, community, transparency, flexibility, and efficiency. Emphasizing natural light and expansive views, workspaces are organized around a central atrium that serves as a vibrant “piazza,” featuring a variety of amenities at ground level. The result is a dynamic, engaging workplace that feels more open and spacious, even with a 50% reduction in square footage per person.
This project represents the planning and design of an integrated campus for a Europeanbased pharmaceutical firm. Specializing in pharmaceutical research, development, and analytical services and production, the North American headquarters was planned and developed in phases on a 40-acre site approximately 30 miles north of Philadelphia. The project includes a three story 80,000 sf administration building and a two story 160,000 sf building with GMP production, warehouse, laboratory, and technical services. The results was an overall phased master plan and design implemented through multiple stages of costeffective development harnessed to the growth of the company.
Virgina Tech
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute
Expansion
Roanoke, VA
140,000 SF
This project created state-ofthe-art, flexible facilities for enhanced biomedical research programs in a “lab block” that is rigorously modular, meeting the CDC’s BSL-2 design guidelines. It houses next-generation core instrumentation facilities, including high-end imaging suites for molecular, cellular, and wholebody imaging, and powerful computing facilities. An animal vivarium for small (rodent) and large (canine and swine) animals is also featured. FCA provided laboratory planning services in partnership with AECOM and the SLAM Collaborative.
Renovations, Fit-Outs, Planning
Valhalla, NY
Hawthorne, NY
Purchase, NY
New York City, NY
~100,000 SF
Over the past 16 years, FCA has delivered over 100,000 SF of innovative projects across four PepsiCo campuses, from planning and pre-design studies for their Valhalla R&D Campus to intricate sensory lab design and office renovations. Most recently, FCA redesigned the Gatorade Sports Science Institute providing new research suites with technically advanced product testing for world class athletes. The completed facility houses a multitude of specialty environments, including a multiuse athlete testing area equipped with high-end apparatus, control room capable of simulating extreme conditions, physiology lab, and scientific microbiology lab.
Elm City Bioscience Center
Office to Lab Conversion
New Haven, CT
100,000 SF
Located in the heart of downtown New Haven, FCA revitalized this underutilized office building into a vital biotech hub. Accommodating fast-growing companies in the sector operating BSL-1 and BSL2 laboratories, the design team modified building systems to accommodate new tenants, maximize each floor’s usable space, and ensure the high efficiency of the building’s utilities and related equipment. Flexible layout options allow each tenant to make adjustments while avoiding large scale renovations. FCA also created the building’s name, logo, and crisp blue and green color palette, distinguishing the building with a cohesive identity and energy.
Shopper Science Lab
Warren, NJ
90,000 SF
The Shopper Science Lab enables GSK and retailers to understand and optimize the consumer retail experience. The space enables immersive virtual modeling and testing prior to constructing physical prototypes. Surrounding a central gathering area lies a focus room and a series of different simulated settings: a retail store, doctor’s exam room, dentist’s operating space, web tracking station, and an exhibition/seminar space.
Elementis Headquarters
East Windsor, NJ
65,000 SF
Elementis is the largest personal care and specialty chemical business in the United Kingdom. The North American Headquarters included research and development labs, scale-up pilot plant, corporate offices, and a town hall meeting area, which opens to a patio on the rear of the building.
The design approach focused on maximum openness plus a connection between the office and lab space. The laboratory spaces consist of an open design approach with shared benches and high ceilings. To enhance customer and visitor experience, a display wall for Elementis products was designed for the reception area, plus there is a showcase lab with a glass front to allow visitors to observe the research work as they pass through to the town center.
Yale University
Integrated Science and Technology Center
West Haven, CT
65,000 SF
The rich infrastructure of a former Bayer Pharmaceutical facility was efficiently and strategically transformed into a new home where disciplines in physical, biological, engineering and medical sciences can collaborate on new discoveries. Branding elements, such as a “honeycomb” motif recalled throughout, combine with open, flexible laboratories to convey an individual identity while remembering the greater academic community.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals
Multiple Projects
New Haven, CT
Over several years and multiple projects, FCA has collaborated with Alexion creating innovative spaces aligning with their mission and brand. We have designed and upgraded this global biopharmaceutical’s Center of Excellence to accommodate the company’s dynamic nature, reflect their commitment to excellence, and provide transformative spaces supporting scientific advancement. After initial occupancy, Alexion’s program quickly changed. Through collaborative visioning sessions, FCA helped prioritize their needs and goals, including expanding lab space, creating flexibility, and showcasing their brand. Given Alexion’s recent acquisition by AstraZeneca, their success is obvious. We believe their new research operations played a critical role, and testify to the power of inspiring environments.
Columbia University
Institute of Comparative Medicine Vivarium Modernization
New York, NY
34,000 SF
FCA completed the feasibility study for this critical animal research facility. It included planning to upgrade the existing cagewash components with the understanding that they would remain in use during construction, as well as replacing outdated HVAC and exhaust equipment to meet AALAC guidelines for redundancy and reliability.
Branford Expansion
Branford, CT
29,000 SF
Consolidating two facilities into a single, technologically advanced research base, protein sequencing company Quantum-Si turned to FCA to design a new headquarters merging the firm’s technical edge and crisp style with engaging art, branding, and collaborative work opportunities. Accommodating sensitive, cuttingedge equipment for both wet and dry laboratories, the new headquarters offers a springboard for Quantum-Si’s anticipated growth trajectory. The open interiors present a healthy, easy-toadapt environment equipped with key conveniences and safety features, from flexible lab benches and adjustable lighting systems to highly efficient fume hoods and mechanical systems.
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Philadelphia, PA
26,500 SF
FCA designed alterations to improve workflow and increase space for the technical procedures and processes performed on the floor. The scope included capturing decanted space within the floor to allow for significant expansion of the grossing lab and sign-out functions, plus increased capacity for growth in faculty.
Syracuse, NY 24,000SF
The Cord Blood Bank at Upstate Medical University is the central repository for cord blood cryostorage and distribution in New York State. FCA’s design sets an architectural precedent for the institution, integrating a contemporary addition to the hospital via a shared atrium and courtyard. To meet SUNY’s LEED Silver requirements, FCA used high-tech materials, including a photovoltaic “honeycomb” glass wall, to introduce sustainability, while also creating an interesting design feature. A green roof retains 100% of the storm water associated with the building’s footprint.
Biohaven Pharmacueticals
Yardley Headquarters
Yardley, PA 17,000 SF
FCA brought this innovative company’s brand to life in both their New Haven headquarters and mid-Atlantic expansion. where their highly mobile workforce required touchdown space for focused work and collaboration. Designed for individual, group, and leadership functions, Biohaven’s environment artfully articulates its bold, rapid-response nature with signature branding, materials, and a wide variety of workstations, huddle rooms, conference rooms, an expandable training center, pantries, and casual spaces that create vibrant settings for innovation and leadership. FCA harnessed daylight and outfitted the space with sit-stand desks, natural materials, non-toxic finishes, and premium air filtration to bring a sense of wellness to this active workplace.
Halda Therapeutics
New Haven, CT
7,500 SF
This headquarters embodies Halda’s outlook of excitement and innovation, accommodating 24 employees, separated by a glass-enclosed conference room from the laboratory’s 40 wet benches outfitted with sinks and fume hoods. The design team focused on infrastructure upgrades, including the installation of a 3’ wide shaft that would direct venting to new air handling equipment installed on the roof. Glass partitions span the length of the headquarters revealing R&D work inside. Sensitive data is protected by treated glass that obscures images on screens.
Yale University
West Campus
Imaging Core
West Haven, CT
7,200 SF
The Imaging Core at Yale is an innovative research laboratory that houses a collection of shared microscopes and sample preparation resources to support on-going research. Rooms were strategically designed in the basement of a facility to reduce daylight and control vibration that could have a negative impact on the research being performed. This stateof-the-art facility is designed with plus/minus .5 degrees Celsius of temperature uniformity and performs to class 100 clean room level.
New Haven, CT
3,500 SF
Drawing on a deep well of experience in the design of highly specialized commercial and institutional research spaces, FCA renovated an existing tissue culture space into 2,000 SF of customized, technical, research space, plus 1,875 SF of soft wall clean rooms and office space for processing and manufacturing circuitry. The facility hosts very low temperature dilution refrigerators to build scalable, modular quantum computers based on superconducting quantum circuits. The project also included a dedicated mechanical room to provide specialized MEP services for all support equipment located in the lab.
Yale University
Winchester Building Aquatics Renovation
New Haven, CT 2,160 SF
This basement-level project consisted of multi-phased construction for the care of xenopus tropicalis (western clawed frogs). The program included a quarantine room, and dedicated juvenile and adult holding rooms each with unique environmental parameters. The design required creative problem solving to coordinate racks with existing floor drains, accommodate limited ceiling height, and integrate the existing main building steam lines which could not be relocated.
Yale University
Department of Geology & Geophysics Clean Lab
New Haven, CT
1,300 SF
This clean lab was designed as part of the Earth Systems Center for Stable Isotopic Studies within Yale University’s Kline Geology Building for the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Housing several mass spectrometers, the lab consists of a metal free environment with associated independent mechanical systems. Additional features included a gowning vestibule air lock, balance area, two Class 100 / ISO5 clean laboratories, two mass spectrometer rooms, and several support and mechanical spaces.
Blackbird Labs for Scheer Partners
Baltimore, MD
34,000 SF
Blackbird Labs is transforming 30,100 SF within the City Garage Science and Technology Center into a purpose-built life sciences incubator, opening in early 2026. The adaptive reuse design embraces the building’s industrial heritage—19foot ceilings, exposed structure, skylights, and ribbon windows—while integrating state-of-the-art biotech functionality. Program elements include lab, lab support, office, amenity spaces, and a vivarium, all organized to encourage interaction and innovation. Designed to accommodate 10+ early-stage biotech companies and nearly 100 researchers, the facility includes shared cell-based research labs and vivarium facilities, supporting a vibrant, collaborative research environment within Baltimore’s evolving biotech landscape.
Quotient Sciences
New Commercial Manufacturing Facility Study
Garnet Valley, PA
43,000 SF
Quotient Sciences intends to construct clinical and commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing space within a newly constructed spec building in Garnet Valley, PA. The new facility is adjacent to QS’ recently built clinical manufacturing facility in order to consolidate and unify operations in the Philadelphia area. The design team has helped to identify and take advantage of the many synergies possible in the new program due to this proximity, such as the opportunity to share conference space, optimize the use of open shared office space, and eliminate redundancies in site amenities and shipping and receiving.
