The Centre for Phenogenomics completed its $50-million facility in the Lebovic Research Centre in Toronto in mid-2007. The 120,000-sf, 180,000-mouse facility houses research laboratories for the study of physiological phenotyping, generation of mutant mice, behavioral analysis, imaging, pathology, and cryopreservation. The project team included engineering firms LKM and SNC-Lavalin Engineering & Technology.
Cornell University celebrated the opening of the 79,000-square-foot East Campus Research Facility (ECRF) on June 26, 2007. Housing approximately 45,000 mice, including transgenic strains, the $55-million building will also accommodate rats, woodchucks, guinea pigs, hamsters, and chickens. Part of Cornell's $600-million New Life Sciences Initiative, the consolidated animal research facility was five years in the making and is expected to be fully operational in fall of 2007. The project was designed by Philadelphia-based Ballinger.
Covance is constructing a 300,000-sf animal testing laboratory in Chandler, Arizona. The facility broke ground in June of 2007 and is slated to begin operations in early 2009. Construction was temporarily halted by a lawsuit which called into question the building permit and zoning for the facility due to alleged non-public meetings between the City of Chandler and Covance. The case was dismissed in February of 2008, allowing construction to resume.
The long-awatited 5th edition of the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) guide is now online on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/biosfty/bmbl5/bmbl5toc.htm .
UC Davis is proposing to construct five new buildings at the California National Primate Research Center in Davis, Calif. A $5.3-million, 10,000-sf building would accommodate virology and immunology research and would include a 1,100-sf BSL-3 laboratory. Four additional modular buildings would have a footprint of approximately 1,500 sf each, two comprised of laboratory space and two housing office space. Each of the modular buildings would cost approximately $800,000.
Iowa State University (ISU) began construction in late 2006 on the first phase of a $51-million renovation of its Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory and Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The project includes renovations to the existing 100,000-sf facility and a 55,000-sf addition housing an advanced imaging facility with improved biocontainment capabilities. The second project phase entails renovations of a vacant small animal facility to enable future expansion. Both phases are expected to reach completion in late 2009.
The University of Saskatchewan has begun construction on the $110 million International Vaccine Center (InterVac) in Saskatoon. Designed by Smith Carter of Winnipeg, the 165,000-sf facility will include large animal testing facilities and BSL-3 containment laboratories for infectious disease and vaccine research.
Emeryville, Calif.-based Neurobiological Technologies, Inc. (NTI) opened a new pharmaceutical vivarium in Moorrege, Germany, in winter of 2006. The facility is owned and operated by NTI’s partner, Nordmark Arzneimittel GmbH, and houses Malayan pit vipers for the production of Viprinex®, a drug for the treatment of strokes. The GMP facility currently houses 100 snakes and could eventually contain up to 1,500.
AMDeC Co., a consortium representing 35 medical institutions in the New York area, is creating a multi-institutional rodent housing facility in Yonkers, New York. Holding up to 80,000 cages and 40,000 mice, the facility will enable institutions such as Columbia University, Rockefeller University, the New York University School of Medicine, and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System to share space and equipment for research.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine dedicated the 78,000-sf Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory on Oct. 2, 2006. The facility will test for animal diseases including chronic wasting disease, mad cow disease, and avian influenza. The building, which reached completion in September 2006 after two years of construction, includes a self-contained 1,200-sf BSL-3 facility, an electron microscope installed on a floating floor, and a 4,000 pound capacity tissue digester.
The University of Michigan has dedicated its new $220-million Biomedical Science Research Building in Ann Arbor, Mich. Gilbane Building Company and joint venture partner Clark Construction were construction managers for the 502,000-sf facility, a flexible, generic research space that will serve the needs of the Medical School. Gilbane's Midwest regional office oversaw the project.
Muhlenberg College occupied its new sustainably-designed science building in Allentown, Pa., in September of 2006. The ground floor of the facility houses Introductory Biology; the first floor, Organismal Biology; and the second floor, Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Neuroscience.
The University of Arizona expanded its Tucson campus with the completion of three new research and laboratory facilities in 2006. All three were designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership of Portland, Ore. The $46.1-million, 85,000-sf Chemistry Building will consolidate chemistry teaching and research programs and is slated for completion in late spring of 2006. The project construction manager is Hensel Phelps Construction Co. The $65.7-million Thomas W.
Kansas State University expects to complete construction of the $54-million Biosecurity Research Institute on its Manhattan campus in late summer or early fall of 2006. The 113,000-sf facility will house 31,000 sf of laboratory and training space and 10,000 sf of administrative operations. Designed by architectural firm Peckham, Guyton, Albers, and Viet, the facility began construction in fall of 2004. The construction manager at risk for the project is Turner Construction.
The University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine opened its $63-million Animal Health Research Center in early summer of 2006. Dedicated to the study of the treatment and prevention of emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin, the three-story, 75,00-sf BSL-3AG facility accommodates biocontainment spaces for the study of agents requiring BSL-1 to BSL-3 facilities.
