Industry News

Drexel University’s new Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship in Technology, scheduled to open in fall 2001, is being designed by IA/Interspace. The center will house a cybercafe and a multi-purpose presentation room for student presentations of business plans to potential investors. Drexel has contracted with the Port of Technology in nearby University City to run the Baiada Center.

University of California, San Diego, plans to break ground in 2002 on the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. The $66,647 million, 127,000-asf structure will house approximately 23,802 nsf of lab and lab support space for the Departments of Materials and Devices and Network Infrastructure. The facility includes SEM, AES, SIMS, FEMTOSECOND Laser suites with MOCVD and XRD labs. Class 1000 and 100 cleanrooms will house lithography, e-beam lithography, thermal processing, wet processing, metallization and thin film.

The University of Texas-San Antonio has plans to build a $6.25 million, 30,000-sf facility to permanently house the university's Institute for Economic Development at its Downtown Campus.

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) plans to expand the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) with CARB II at the university's Shady Grove campus. Most of the $38 million, 140,000-sf four-story building will house research labs, including facilities for both plant core transformation and insect transformation. The structure will also accommodate a 5,000-sf UMBI staff office, and a teaching lab for bioprocess engineering.

The Medical College of Virginia Hospital has selected Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott working with Baskervill & Son of Richmond to design a 229,000-sf, 10-level gateway building to serve as the new "front door" for the campus. The project will create continuity between various medical specialties, enhanceing the deliveryof patient care.