Designing the environment for discovery requires a particular kind of leadership. At the Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building, part of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WashU Medicine), that leadership lives in the steady, systems-minded approach of David Lott, Executive Director of Research Facilities. His work is measured in continuity, precision, and the quiet confidence that nearly 100 labs can pursue life-changing breakthroughs with minimal disruption.
David Lott | WashU Medicine | Executive Director, Research Facilities—Neuroscience Research Building
WashU Medicine stands among the top medical research institutions in the country. Located in the heart of the Midwest but competing directly with elite coastal universities, it pairs discovery with clinical care, ensuring that patients receive the most innovative care, informed and infused by the latest research findings. In that environment, facilities are strategic assets.
Lott’s path began in architecture. A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with both undergraduate and master’s degrees, he spent more than a decade with Trivers Associates, an architecture firm in St. Louis, on projects of long-lasting consequence, including the Gateway Arch Museum expansion and the Missouri State Capitol exterior restoration. Those assignments demanded fluency with stakeholders and decisions that would stand for generations.
He joined WashU Medicine in 2019 as a project manager of the Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building, known internally as the NRB. What began as oversight of equipment logistics evolved into lab design leadership, activation strategy, and operational stewardship. He helped relocate neuroscience research previously spread across 11 buildings on the Medical Campus into a single, consolidated hub: a massive, 609,000-square-foot, 11-story neuroscience research building. “Our strategy was to move from siloed environments into a collaborative ecosystem,” Lott explains.
The consolidation required building trust across roughly 100 research groups. The NRB is organized by thematic clusters rather than departmental silos. Offices and laboratories are consistently sized. Workspaces are predictable. Yet, the infrastructure is modular and flexible and can be adapted to future needs.
“You need spaces that work for everyone,” Lott says. “Space consistency and modularity allow us to be good stewards of future resources by not having to renovate spaces when labs change size or move. The building is adaptable and predictable, which gives the researchers confidence in their environment and allows them to maintain their focus on the research.”
That equity is deliberate. A shared governance structure ensures expectations are applied evenly, reinforcing that every academic department in the building operates under one flag. Decisions were made long before construction began, and lines had to be drawn, even knowing science would evolve.
“A 100-year facility has to be flexible,” he says. “Our role is to evolve it thoughtfully, supporting new research needs while preserving the strong foundation already in place.”
Recruiting through stewardship
Lott reframes the recruiting of research faculty and staff in a distinctly WashU Medicine way: the building recruits first. Scientists gravitate toward environments that accelerate their work rather than tax it. In that sense, the NRB serves both as a powerful brand and a magnet for attracting talent.
“Our competitors are the coastal universities,” Lott notes. “But we have a strength here.”
That strength is collaboration amplified. The building unites experts in neurology, neuroscience, neurosurgery, psychiatry, anesthesiology, radiology, genetics, and developmental biology and is organized by research themes, including brain tumor biology, psychiatric illness, pain, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The NRB also sits adjacent to the Cortex Innovation District, to create synergy with biotech startups—including a number of WashU startups, helping to commercialize WashU discoveries and expand access to WashU-born innovations. Additionally, the year after opening, WashU.Medicine rose to number two among US medical schools in NIH funding, supported in part by an expansion of research faculty, including those working within the NRB. For Lott, stewardship of the NRB is part of talent acquisition. Maintaining exceptional standards and building a dedicated operations team signals to research faculty and staff recruits that their ability to conduct research will be prioritized. Internally, he leads six direct reports and works closely with about 50 colleagues within Operations and Facilities Management.
“We don’t just operate in the shadows,” he says. “We make the connections between facilities, the faculty and their research.”
Researchers in the NRB are focused on preventing or even delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s, advancing therapies for brain tumors and neurological diseases such as ALS and Parkinson’s, studying the underlying causes of pain and working to better understand psychiatric illnesses. Custodians, maintenance technicians, engineers, and administrators focus on environmental stability and predictable service. The shared objective is singular.
“One of our primary goals at WashU is to develop new treatments and cures for neurological diseases and change the world,” Lott says.
Performance as sustainability
The NRB was constructed to be a LEED Gold facility, but at this scale, sustainability is also a strategy for durability. Despite being the largest building on campus, it uses roughly 25 percent less energy than similarly sized facilities.
In research environments, airflow and temperature control are dominant energy drivers. Fume hood behavior, targeted HVAC systems, and freezer optimization all influence performance. Ultra-low-temperature freezers can operate at minus 70 degrees Celsius during idle periods, saving significant energy while remaining ready to adjust to lower temperatures when needed. Lighting controls optimize lighting based on available sunlight and shut off automatically in unoccupied spaces.
A centralized robotic BioStore housing millions of biological samples reduces reliance on standalone freezers and improves efficiency. For Lott, sustainability reinforces researcher confidence. Efficient systems reduce operational risk and protect grant dollars. In fragile neuroscience experiments, environmental stability is nonnegotiable.
Data, dignity & predictability
Two years into occupancy, Lott’s focus has shifted from activation to optimization. Occupancy sensors and badging data provide insight into how space in the building is used, so custodial schedules can be adjusted accordingly, redeploying resources toward high-traffic areas when indicated. The goal is stewardship, not surveillance. Underutilized space may determine whether a new researcher can be accommodated immediately. In a high-cost building with a finite footprint and unbuilt shell floors awaiting justification, data informs disciplined decisions.
In addition, supervisors conduct monthly floor reviews to identify maintenance needs before they become disruptive emergencies. Proactive painting, carpeting, and minor repairs create a predictable environment for researchers.
Experience in architecture trained Lott to reconcile competing demands and to create structure from complexity. Whether in historic preservation or neuroscience research, the discipline is similar. He must live with the design decisions he helped shape, ensuring they continue to serve evolving science.
The result is a building that feels intentional, with attention to detail and a dedicated operations staff. Each element reinforces that facilities exist to serve discovery.
Lott is quick to credit the leadership that entrusted him with expanding his responsibilities, particularly mentors who recognized that complex problem-solving in architecture could translate into research operations. Long-term stewardship suits him. Unlike project work that concludes and resets, the NRB demands ongoing accountability. He often describes the challenge as creating structure out of chaos, aligning end users, contractors, and facilities teams into a coordinated delivery model that feels seamless to scientists.
That mindset extends beyond systems to culture. Consistency of expectation, transparency in decision-making, and visible follow-through build trust across departments and among research teams. In a building where autonomy gives way to communal space, credibility is currency. By reinforcing shared standards and equitable treatment, Lott helps to ensure that collaboration is not just aspirational but a daily practice embedded in the environment itself.
In hallways and labs, a shared purpose enhances collaboration that is leading to discoveries at the frontier of brain science that will alleviate suffering. A custodian resetting a workspace, a technician monitoring a system, an executive director reviewing data, and a physician-scientist testing a hypothesis all contribute to the same ambition. The infrastructure supports the science. The science aims to heal patients.
Within the Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building, Lott sees an ecosystem designed to protect fragile ideas until they mature into breakthroughs. He sees a workforce aligned around continuity, so research never loses a minute to preventable disruption. In that quiet reliability, every role moves in the same direction, toward discoveries that just might change the world.
