In case you missed the December 2010 launch party in Brooklyn, Nature Medicine takes a tour inside the new Genspace community lab and talks to co-founder Daniel Grushkin (video link):
One of the most intriguing features of their space is a big glass box where all the lab equipment lives (much of it donated from a bankrupt biotech company). The lab is constructed from several sliding glass doors drawn from the vast supply of found and recovered objects that occupy several floors of the Met Exchange building. When I visited in December, I asked the Genspace folks the obvious question: Why did you build your lab in a glass box? I learned that they had help from the (wonderful) Met Exchange owner Al Attara, who asked them for some basic requirements and they said “well, for starters, we know we want our lab to be open and transparent…” They came back to the space a few days later, and, voila! Lab in a (glass) box! Made from sliding glass doors!
Read more about Genspace at their blog or follow them on twitter @genspacenyc. See also the nice profile piece of Al and his Met Exchange in the nytimes.
DIYbio 