Industry News

Drexel University is initiating $400 million in capital projects on its University City campus in Philadelphia. Comprised of 11 projects slated for completion by 2013, the campus master plan was designed by Sasaki Associates. Facilities include the Integrated Sciences Building, featuring a 40-foot biofilter wall using living plants as an air filter for dust particles, and a $42 million expansion of the recreation center. Additionally, ground will be broken for a new dormitory in April of 2008 with occupancy expected in fall of 2009.

Newcastle University is planning £200 million in construction over the next three years in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. Construction will begin in April of 2008 on a £35 million, five-story Student and Administrative Services building. Other projects include a £34 million international student housing and academic building, a £29.8 million facility to house the Institute of Health and Society and a Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, a £4.8 million dormitory, and new home for the International Centre for Music Studies and the Great North Museum project.

Isogen has selected AES Clean Technology to design and construct a modular cleanroom facility for clinical pharmaceutical manufacturing in New Castle County, Delaware. The sterile contract filling facility will support multiple products from development through clinical, launch, and commercial production. The project will include isolators within a gas-sterilizable modular cleanroom, optimizing containment to prevent cross-contamination of compounds in a multi-product environment.

Nassau University Medical Center will begin construction in 2009 on a $55 million emergency department in East Meadow, N.Y. Doubling the footprint of the medical center’s existing ER, the project will feature new radiology facilities and an expanded psychiatric emergency program. Designed to enable response to mass casualty scenarios, the 52,000-sf facility will include 82 treatment rooms, portable decontamination shower tents, isolation rooms, a separate pediatric treatment area, and a new roof helipad. The project architect is Cannon Design of Manhattan.

Uniboard's Nu-Green particleboard is now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international organization that promotes responsible stewardship of the world's forests. Effective February 15, 2008, this independent body issued a Chain of Custody (COC) Certificate to Uniboard for the Nu-Green Product manufactured in the company's plant in Sayabec, Quebec. The same certification had been appointed to raw particle boards produced in Uniboard's Val d'Or plant in late 2007.