The 600,000 square-foot Stowers Institute for Medical Research is situated on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City Missouri. When planning the construction of the Institute, Jim and Virginia Stowers visited top research institutions around the United States, noting the best practices to ensure that Stowers Institute research facilities offered optimum research efficiency. Design Encourages Interaction      Throughout the design and construction of the facility, care was taken to promote productive interactions among researchers. The designers and builders created an environment with interesting nooks and inviting spaces that encourage researchers to pause for a moment and exchange ideas. Contrary to the antiseptic feeling of many new laboratories, the warm design underscores the intent of the facility to encourage collaborative efforts to improve human health.      Architects designed an open stairwell in the middle of the laboratory building to enable scientists to move conveniently between floors for informal discussions without having to take an elevator. The fireplace in the Library, beneath a soaring glass etching with the words “Hope for Life®” in more than 20 languages, lures people to stop and talk. The Gallery runs the length of the wall of glass on the first level, and is broken up with indoor gardens, planters, and seating for casual conversations. Comfortable areas for quick snacks and drinks are scattered around the laboratory floors, all with pleasing views of the campus grounds. A Neighborhood United      In addition to being a marvelous place for research, the Institute adds another architectural gem to the surrounding neighborhood. Situated across the street from the leafy campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City, the Institute is a few blocks from the neo-classic Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the widely admired Country Club Plaza, a shopping and dining district. A few blocks to the west is the Midwest Research Institute, an organization that has performed contract research and development for government and private industry for more than 50 years. Just southeast of the Stowers site is the campus of Rockhurst College. Ponds, Fountains, Natural Stone      Visitors enter the six-story research complex off a circle drive adjacent to a 31-foot sculpture of the double helix. Ponds, fountains, and decorative limestone walls are scattered around the site. On the north side of the research building, visitors can look through a wall of glass out to Brush Creek, a waterway with footpaths and fountains which winds through the neighborhood.      The four-story administrative building adjacent to the research facility houses a health club, offices, and a floor of one- and two-bedroom guest suites for visiting researchers. The exterior walls of the complex are made of pre-cast concrete in the pale, cottonwood limestone color favored in the neighborhood. A Place for Everything      Each floor in the main research building has private offices for six to eight program leaders, plus eight laboratories of six to eight benches each. Shared research support areas occupy the center area between the two rows of laboratories. Depending upon the needs of individual scientists on the floor, the support areas include darkrooms, tissue culture labs, shared equipment rooms, and cold rooms for tissue preparation.      A first-floor Auditorium with rear-projection screens and Imax-quality audiovisual technology has comfortable seating for 200 people. There are also smaller conference rooms and spaces for teleconferencing and for broadcasting symposia. Outside the Auditorium, a wide, curving staircase leads down to the Cafeteria.      The research building includes a state-of-the-art vivarium, the facility housing transgenic mice. Its design and operation are largely based on a program written for the Institute by Dr. Joseph Spinelli, retired director of animal care at the University of California-San Francisco.      The Stowers vivarium is the first research animal facility in the United States to install the Automated Cage and Rack Washing system built by the Swedish firm Steris Amsco. The $1.5 million robotic system provides for emptying and washing mouse cages, replacing the food and bedding, and returning the cages to use without human labor.      The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is unable to offer tours for the public, but a Virtual Tour is available online.