Industry News

Buck Institute for Age Research opened its stem cell training lab in Novato, Calif., in August of 2008. The 5,400-sf laboratory was supported by funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and will provide instruction for graduate students and researchers on the culturing of embryonic stem cells. The facility is located in an 185,000-sf research building that includes a vivarium for small rodents sited beneath the training lab.

Eastern Mennonite University is planning a $30 million expansion and renovation of the Suter Science Center in Harrisonburg, Va. The project will include a $22 million, 42,712-sf addition and an $8 million, 48,000-sf renovation of the existing science building. The facility will house research labs, faculty offices, classrooms, a museum, a two-story atrium, and teaching labs for biology, chemistry, and physics. The nursing education program will also be housed in the new building.

Good Samaritan Hospital's MultiCare facility in Puyallup, Wash., is slated for completion in late 2010. LEED Silver certification for sustainable design will be sought for the 353,000-sf inpatient facility. Designed by Clark/Kjos Architects and Giffin Bolte Jurgens Architects, the patient care tower will include 80 private patient rooms, emergency, imaging, and surgery.

ProHealth will initiate construction in 2009 on a 56-bed hospital adjacent to its outpatient facility in Mukwonago, Wis. Slated for completion within two years, Waukesha Memorial Hospital-Mukwonago will be comprised of a three-story inpatient tower with emergency department, eight-bed ICU, surgery, and a cardiac catheterization laboratory. Project cost is estimated at between $75 million and $90 million.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the finalists for the possible location of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in August of 2008. The five locations reported as finalists are: