Industry News

Burlington County's Virtua Memorial Hospital has completed its new $19.6-million expansion and renovation project initiated in December of 1999. The 45,000-sf addition provides space for new operating rooms including a 26-bed critical-care unit and a cardiac-catheterization suite. Oversized operating rooms have the capacity to support advanced neurosurgical and orthopedic equipment. In the existing hospital building, 15,000 sf of space was renovated to expand the lobby and house a conference center, cafe, and gift shop.

Emory University has opened the new $81.3-million Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, an eight-floor structure housing 150 faculty offices and 150 labs in an open-lab design equipped with advanced automated and robotic equipment for rapid DNA analysis. A below-ground 50,000-sf facility houses rodent research. The new 325,000-sf research building accommodates the Center for Medical Genomics, the Neurodegenerative Disease Center, and Emory’s departments of cell biology, and human genetics and physiology.

The Pennsylvania State University has selected Gilbane Building Company as program/construction manager for preconstruction services for five buildings on the State College campus. The new complex includes the Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration (210,000 sf); two new buildings for the College of Agricultural Sciences: the food science department (112,000 sf) and the School of Forest Resources (84,000 sf); a 1,200-car parking deck; and a 3,000-ton chiller.

Genteric has relocated within Alameda to a new 32,000-sf facility, more than doubling its space for corporate operations, as well as research space for its gene transfer technology platforms. Construction on the new building, designed by Ware Malcom and builtout by DPR Construction, began in October 2001 and features research and development labs and provides room for future expansion for the biotechnology company.

The Harvard Institutes of Medicine in collaboration with Lyme Properties LLC is proposing the construction of the Blackfan Research Center—a  400,000-sf biomedical research facility for academic research institutions in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. The 18-story structure would accommodate 280,000 sf of lab space for research and 120,000 sf of office space, and provide below-ground parking for 300 vehicles. Pending permit approvals by the end of 2002, Lyme hopes to begin construction by mid-2003, with completion in 2005.