GlaxoSmithKline recently engaged Computerized Facility Integration (CFI) to develop an executive reporting dashboard that will give leaders the ability to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that help identify organizational opportunities and missteps. Once developed, this strategic information will help the real estate group quickly set a course to bring rapid improvement and reduced costs.
Merck broke ground in August of 2014 on a $108 million pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Nantong, China. Located in the BioSpark development, the 430,560-sf facility will produce therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, thyroid disorders, and diabetes. The highly efficient project is designed to minimize waste during the manufacturing process. Completion is expected in 2016 with commercial operations commencing in 2017.
High-performance core facilities, spurred by proliferating cross-disciplinary investigations and technological advances, can benefit from the long-standing focus on flexibility that has generated so many design efficiencies in the traditional research lab, says Randy Kray, senior vice president and science and technology director of programming and planning at HOK.
With no private offices or assigned seats, not even for top executives, employees at GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) corporate office at the Philadelphia Navy Yard work in a variety of work settings. Work spaces include the atrium, the cafeteria, sit-to-stand workstations, quiet rooms, meeting rooms, and even the rooftop.
NASA Glenn Research Center opened the $20.5 million Mission Integration Center in Cleveland in July of 2014. The three-story, 90,000-sf facility provides collaborative research and office space to accommodate 300 employees. The project has attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification and will use 30 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than a conventional building. Construction began on the facility in September of 2010.
Lahey Hospital is planning a $60 million expansion of its academic medical center campus in Burlington, Mass. Designed by FreemanWhite and built by Suffolk Construction, the 190,000-sf facility will provide a new emergency department as well as mechanical areas and shell space to accommodate future growth. The project will be delivered using Model-Based Estimating and Lean construction methodologies. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility, which is slated for completion in spring of 2017.
Georgia Gwinnett College opened the $30 million Allied Health and Science Building in August of 2014 in Lawrenceville. The three-story, 91,000-sf interdisciplinary facility provides laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics, and anatomy and physiology, as well as housing classrooms, faculty offices, and study areas. The second floor of the building accommodates the nursing program and includes a technology-rich classroom for team-based learning and a simulation training center with a 14-bed clinical practice lab.
University of Kentucky officials are using a new digital construction information management tool to manage over 30 active projects totaling approximately $800 million. The Web-based eCommunication system designed by Lynn Imaging was adopted as the University enters a significant capital development phase, with projects including a major expansion and upgrading of the Student Center, a modernization to Commonwealth Stadium, a state-of-the-art science classroom and lab facility, and interior fit-out of the new University Patient Care Facility.
Verne Global's data center has performed more efficiently than initial expectations, thanks to the capacity and cost savings resulting from a free cooling system based on technology from Eaton-Williams, an affiliate of CES Group, LLC. Located in Keflavik, Iceland, the facility is the world’s first zero-carbon, 100% renewably powered data center. The center utilizes an innovative free cooling system that takes advantage of the moderate Icelandic climate and taps into the island’s vast geothermal and hydroelectric resources.
A multi-tenant biomedical research and laboratory building is poised to become a powerful economic driver in El Paso, Texas, thanks to an innovative public-private partnership between the Medical Center of the Americas (MCA) Foundation, the City of El Paso, and a diverse group of investors and committed tenants. Construction has not yet begun on the building, called the Cardwell Collaborative, but key stakeholders—such as the city’s public health department, Texas Tech University, and the University of Texas at El Paso—have already snapped up master leases.
Boston Medical Center has implemented new mobile facility management applications from Magic Software Enterprises. BMC's new iOS and Android apps are part of the End-to-End Enterprise Mobility Solution and increase the efficiency of hospital technicians who repair equipment across the large campus. The apps enable the immediate rerouting of employees to respond to critical malfunctions as they happen and also allow hospital staff to initiate and monitor service calls and check on the status of incidents at any time.
The key to fully leveraging a building automation system (BAS) in animal research facilities is to put all of the information about the animals’ environment at staff’s literal fingertips with tablet computing. Additionally, a few simple upgrades—some derived from unlikely sources—can help reduce costs associated with controlling two of the industry’s primary concerns: ammonia detection and airflow.
How many facilities management and corporate real estate editorials and articles have been written over the past five years championing the cause that facilities management and corporate real estate need seats in the C-suite Club? Many, but probably about the same number written in any five-year period since the 1970s, when facilities management and corporate real estate began to emerge as unique business functions. It’s an old lament.
An evidence-based approach to designing and analyzing research laboratories—one that focuses on practical and interrelated reductions in energy use—offers long-term cost benefits that trump popular but often-underperforming symbolic gestures. Traditional thinking suggests that sustainable construction of research labs, which are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the world, costs many times more than the non-green alternative. Not so, say the designers at Payette, a Boston architectural firm.
The biggest factor in determining or predicting appropriate facilities management staffing levels is not the amount or type of space managed, but the size and type of the workforce served. This revelation, which contradicts widespread thought and practice, came to light in a new study of how facility management staffing models have changed over the past 10 years—a period that includes the Great Recession of 2008.
