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= Research Facilities Design = Research Facilities Design (RFD) is a U.S. based architectural practice that was founded in 1984 in San Diego, California by W. Malcolm Barksdale. It is nationally recognized as a laboratory design consulting firm for industry and higher education. RFD is a privately held corporation with three principal owners, W. Malcolm Barksdale, AIA; Richard M. Heinz, FAIA ; and Sean Towne, AIA.

History
RFD is a California-based architectural firm, founded in 1984, with a focus on science facilities. RFD moved to new offices in their current location in San Diego in 1995, with eighteen employees. RFD currently employs twenty-three architects, engineers, technical and administrative staff, and over the years has expanded the practice to include many laboratory facility types – including science, engineering, clinical, and pharmaceutical laboratories.

Design
RFD is a laboratory design firm comprised of architects, engineers and technical staff that specializes exclusively in the programming and design of laboratory facilities for college and university, industry and governmental clients. The firm has completed more than 1,000 projects as the laboratory design consultant. These projects – mostly focused on the higher education sector – include buildings for many well-established teaching and research university systems around the U.S.

RFD is known for utilizing an iterative, participatory, and consensus-building process to assist clients, both the Architect and the Owner, in defining and balancing their programmatic needs, project schedule, phasing, and construction budget with their vision of the project. This process is, in many ways, the core of RFD’s practice, and is based on a series of highly interactive workshops within each phase of a project.

RFD was the principal laboratory planner for such projects as the G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons at Georgia Institute of Technology, the Life Sciences Building at Loyola Marymount University; and the Solar Energy Research Center (SERC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL).

Recent international work includes the Bio Research Complex in Pangyo Techno Valley and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi.

Awards
RFD has been the laboratory design consultant on many award-winning projects, including R&D Magazine’s Lab of the Year for 2015, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), and Lab of the Year Awards: Special Recognition for Collaborative Learning Environment for the Enzi Educational Facility at the University of Wyoming.