Industry News

The Burnham Institute for Medical Research has consolidated three Orlando offices in a new 175,000-sf, $85 million research facility designed to study diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Medical City is a 600-acre science and technology park within Windermere, Fla.-based Tavistock Group’s Lake Nona mixed-use master-planned community.

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography has opened a new $5 million, 11,000-sf facility to further their research on marine and coastal systems. The Marine and Coastal Science Research and Instructional Center (MCSRIC) houses high-tech lab, conference, office, and collaboration space in a single-story building designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent of Atlanta, who have targeted LEED Gold certification for the facility.

The recently opened 120,000-sf, $53 million School of Pharmacy building for the University of Waterloo is the first element of a planned Health Science Campus. The city of Kitchener donated eight prime development acres for the planned campus, which aims at bringing a wide range of health-related fields, including the Waterloo Region’s first medical school, together in a compact area. The School of Pharmacy building used mainly local materials in construction.

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.