Fentress Architects set out to design a laboratory on the Mesa that would pull researchers out of their routines and encourage interaction. With that goal in mind, the design team took the standard lab module and shifted it in opposing directions, altering the way people move through the building. This design shift increases the opportunity for impromptu meet-ups and dialogue. It creates spaces at each end of the building for shared two-story break rooms, which interconnect all levels of the building. Stairways between floors were strategically designed as areas of “creative collision” where people and ideas intersect.