Industry News

SGS North America opened a new 16,500-sf state-of-the-art facility in May in Deer Park, Texas. The Houston office of LCS Constructors used the design-build method of project delivery, and completed the project in nine months. More than 75% of the building is lab space for comprehensive laboratory testing services to support SGS’s regional as well as global customers. The facility handles petroleum, petrochemical and agricultural products, biofuels, LPG, LNG, and other commodities in accordance with ASTM, IP, UOP, ISO, and EN methods.

The University of Miami (UM), working with Wexford Science & Technology of Hanover, Md., is embarking on the 211,000-sf phase one of a planned six-building, 2 million-sf UM Life Science Park aimed at both established and spin-off companies who want to work with university researchers. The facilities will encompass preconstructed wet labs, offices, and shared facilities for technology development, as well as housing for researchers and academia, and street-level retail.

Building Protection Systems, Inc., (BPSI) of San Francisco has unveiled Building Sentry One, a real-time toxin-detection identification system designed to protect buildings and people inside of them from accidental or deliberate airborne chemical or radiological releases. Upon detection of a biohazard, the system automatically shuts down a building's air and ventilation system. The SAFETY ACT designation is one of less than forty given to new technologies in 2008. Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Head Tom Ridge is acting as a senior advisor to the firm.

Maui Community College's planned $26 million, 34,000-sf science building, designed by Design Partners of Honolulu, is targeted for LEED Gold certification-a real challenge, as some of the LEED criteria, such as using building materials obtained from within a few hundred miles, are impossible for the island location. The building will house eight separate laboratories, a lecture hall, a large foyer intended for exhibitions, and a small, separate observatory. "Green" features will include solar photovoltaic panels, rooftop wind turbines, skylights, and light wells.

The Engineering Department at Yamagata University is planning to begin construction in fall 2009 on a 6,000-square-meter research center in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture. The 1- to 2-billion yen facility will focus on research in organic electroluminescence-the use of organic material that emits light with the application of electric current, a process which consumes much less electricity compared to other forms of illumination. Anticipated applications of the process include use in cell phones and TV screens.