Industry News

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston is creating one of the first national biocontainment laboratories with a $120 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The University will contribute the remaining $40 million to build the $160-million, 170,000-sf project. The laboratory will house flexible, high-level biocontainment facilities, clinical facilities, and research support space.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center will build a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory in Memphis, Tenn. Funded by $5 million from the University and a $14 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the facility will accommodate research on bioterrorism and biotechnology and will be located adjacent to UT’s existing vivarium.

M+W Zander was presented with a Distinguished Building Award at AIA Chicago’s Designight on September 19, 2003 in recognition of the firm’s design for the New Administration Building and Underground Parking Facility for McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. The 42,000-gsf building and 60,000-gsf parking garage complex was completed in May 2003, for which M+W Zander provided master site planning, programming, architectural design, and construction administration services.

The Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University recently celebrated the “topping off” of its newest educational and research facility, the Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine, and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS). The state-of-the-art facility features undergraduate teaching and project labs, research facilities and a variety of spaces where faculty and students can both formally meet and informally interact. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca designed the building, and Skanska USA Building is serving as manager of construction.

Denver Health’s new $45.9 million expansion opened in June of 2003. The four-story, 143,000-sf wing brought intensive care unit bed space from eleven beds separated by curtains to 24 private rooms.  A secure 21-bed correctional inpatient and outpatient facility is located in the basement, with security cameras and doors and guard stations. The wing also houses 52 medical/surgical private rooms and space for orthopedic services. Gerald H. Phipps Construction was the general contractor for the project, which began in September 2001.