Industry News

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is proposing to build a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) pathogen research facility for the study of hazardous airborne diseases. Construction costs for the three-lab, 1,100-sf building could reach $1.5-million. Completion could be expected as early as 2003. Lawrence Livermore and New Mexico's Los Alamos Laboratory are the first Department of Energy labs to seek permission to study these pathogens.

Cytec Industries has selected Flad & Associates to design a renovation to their facility in Stamford, Ct. Flad is providing full architectural design services including programming, planning and structural engineering design for the renovation of 240,000 sf of lab and support space. Other team members include Affiliated Engineers of Gainesville, Florida, and Turner Construction of Milford, Ct., providing estimating and construction services.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas recently broke ground on a 24,000-sf renovation of laboratory and office space for the University's biochemistry department. Architect for the project is Omniplan; the contractor is McCarthy. The project includes the demolition and renovation of a portion of the third floor in Building K, a five-story research facility on the UT Southwestern campus. The labs on this floor, used for research in cell biology, were originally constructed in the mid-1970s.

Kennesaw State University is developing University Place, comprised of 11 three-story residential buildings and a 1,500-car parking deck. The $61-million, 700-bed project is a public-private venture built not with taxpayer dollars but with tax-exempt bonds and a nonrecourse loan. The 196-unit development included the Kennesaw State University Foundation's purchase of nine private homes and an existing apartment complex, which also helped fund the project.

Orix Real Estate Equities of Chicago is planning to build Washingtonian South, a two-building, 350,000-sf Class A office complex and parking structure in Gaithersburg. Located on a 7.4-acre site in the mixed-use Washingtonian Center business park, the development will be marketed to health and life science tenants. Construction is slated to begin in the fall.