Industry News

Biosquare, a $650-million biotech development, is under construction in Boston. Boston University and Boston University Medical Center are the developers of the project, which is being built in two phases. Phase one  encompasses 1.2 million sf of space including 60,000 sf of space for animal testing, an in-house incinerator, and a 1,000-car parking garage. Phase one is nearing completion. Phase two will provide 1.3 million additional sf of space for labs and offices, a 240-room hotel, and an a 1,200-car parking garage.

ONI Systems, a high-tech company based in San Jose, Calif., will locate its Lightwave Design Center at Nottingham Hall, a 105,000-sf building under construction in the Imperial Office Park near Research Triangle Park.  ONI plans to  employ 150 people doing product development in 54,000 sf—the top two floors—of the facility, which will also serve as a customer support center for ONI’s East Coast clients. Clancy & Theys is the general contractor for the building, which is scheduled for completion in spring 2001.

Northwestern University has awarded the Chicago office of Turner Construction Company a $25.9-million contract for the construction of the 86,0000-sf Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly. The new, four-story plus basement chemistry lab building will house 16 labs, faculty and graduate student offices, conference rooms, and support spaces. The project scope includes laboratory casework, fume hoods, lab equipment, and extensive M/E/P systems and temperature controls required to support the lab environments.

Duke University opened its new $200-million Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy research center in late November 2000. The institute’s mission is to develop applications of genomic research through the work of a multidisciplinary consortium of scientists, engineers, physicians, lawyers and ethicists. Five centers will comprise the institute: the Center for Human Genetics; the Center for Human Disease Models; the Center for Genome Technology; the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; and the Center for Ethics, Law, and Policy.

Georgia Tech's College of Architecture Center for Rehabilitation Technology (CRT) will create the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center. In a five-year program, the CRT will provide design expertise to major technology manufacturers so that computers and telecommunication technologies may be more easily used by persons with disabilities. The Training Center is the result of a $7.5-million federal grant awarded in September 2000 to Georgia Tech by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.