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Jeff Talka
National Science & Technology Practice Leader, The S/L/A/M Collaborative
Age: 66
Industry experience: 40 years
Jeff Talka’s new role is to expand architect S/L/A/M Collaborative’s work in the science and technology sectors, but he needs some experienced help. As the newly-appointed leader of the firm’s industry practice, Talka plans to expand its roster of experienced architects to pursue more design work in Boston and other metros with growing clusters. The firm, which is headquartered in Glastonbury, Connecticut, is seeking to augment its traditional focus in education and health care projects.
Q: What brought you back to S/L/A/M Collaborative for the new leadership role?
A: I’ve been with S/L/A/M before and I’m kind of a rebound. I was leading the science and technology practice but based in Glastonbury at the time. Three years ago, I moved up to Portland, Maine for personal reasons, and left the firm. Now after COVID, I’m back. With the easier commute and also with distanced communication and [Microsoft] Teams and Zoom, it made things easier so I could assimilate into the company.
My immediate charge is to build the science and technology practice in the metro Boston area. We also have other locations like Philadelphia and Glastonbury and Denver and I’m going to be assisting those locations to get into the market. Immediately, it’s corporate science and technology. We have long standing relationships with Pfizer and Sanofi and a few other companies we want to springboard into the Boston market as well as the surrounding areas. Science and technology for us is a horizontal market: It can cross over into corporate, health care and higher education. My other task is to build the science and technology staff and deepen the bench in terms of expertise and develop the next generation of subject matter experts within the firm.
Q: Which metros outside of the established life science and tech clusters are showing the most growth potential?
A: We have a Denver office and we’re going to start taking a look at some of the technology parks. One of the things that’s interesting is university research parks. I think Denver will be a hotbed. We have an office in Orlando, and we think Florida is going to emerge. In Philadelphia, University City was developed by Wexford Science + Technology and that will probably expand. We’ll be working with universities and corporate clients looking to work with university-based developers to develop technology centers. Some of these would probably include some GMP space. What we see in the Boston metro is an emergence of these GMP spaces. The technology maturity in the Boston area is such that we’ve got a lot of startups and they are starting to commercialize drugs. You’ll be seeing partnerships with the big boys like Pfizer.
Q: Do you expect more hybrid R&D and biomanufacturing complexes such as was recently proposed at Suffolk Downs?
A: The locations of GMP are typically in the suburbs because the cost of land is cheaper. The folks that are employed are not really the high-end scientists, so they would live in the suburbs and enjoy a lower cost of living. On the other hand, by combining labs and manufacturing for a pilot plant for proof of concept, that’s a very synergistic type of approach. And that’s typically what big pharma will do as opposed to having basic research in Boston and manufacturing in Billerica or someplace like that.
Q: Has the pandemic forced architects to reconsider lab designs?
A: It’s not so much the pandemic as the technology that’s changing the way research is being done. There’s more impact from the computers than from the traditional empirical research that was trial and error, where you’d have researchers mixing test tubes or making discoveries in the fume hood. With computer-based research, researchers can model molecules and use the actual wet labs as proof of concept. And also, by being able to do computer-based research, you can be socially distant but still collaborate. So, the impact of the pandemic was to expose us to all the available technology and force us to use it, which impacts the way we do science. Your office is where your laptop is, so you can do research anywhere as long as you have enough bandwidth.
Q: Given labs’ high energy usage, what advances are possible in sustainability?
A: There have been studies on the traditional wet laboratories which run 24-7 and they are real energy hogs. Most of it’s air handling. Those high-intensity spaces are only used 35 percent of the time by researchers. They often do other things, computer-based work, meetings, working in their office. If you can share that kind of facility and have some of the computer-based research done in an office, you can see just based upon the utilization of space, you can save money. The other thing is what we call risk-based ventilation. You’re analyzing how much air movement you need, how many air changes per hour, so you could right-size the ventilation. Again, you couple that with the way research is being done on the computer and you could systematically reduce the amount of energy consumption.
Talk’s Five Favorite Career Choices Beyond Architecture:
- Professional Hockey Player
- Scientist
- Chef/Restaurateur
- Musician
- Illustrator
