Annual revalidation of BSL-3 biocontainment facilities—which involves verifying that systems are operating to specifications—is important not only to maintain a safe working environment for scientific needs, but also to reduce utility and maintenance costs and protect the substantial financial investments such buildings represent. The time and expense of the revalidation process can be minimized with careful preplanning.
The five-story, 237,000-sf Sandler Neurosciences Center creates a new hub for the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco, with the consolidation of the Department of Neurology, the Neurodegenerative Disease Research program, the Center for Integrative Neurosciences, and the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases. The 38-year lease, after which UCSF will own the building, represents the first time the University of California System has used a public-private-partnership funding model for a solely programmatic facility.
The University of Minnesota will break ground in fall of 2013 on a $63 million microbiology research facility in Minneapolis. The 80,000-sf project will be the final building to be constructed in UM's $292 million Biomedical Discovery District and will house the Department of Microbiology and other departments and schools within the Academic Health Center. Designed by BWBR Architects, the facility will provide labs, offices, collaboration areas, pharmaceutical R&D suites, and biocontainment space for the study of infectious diseases.
The Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI), an offshoot of the VGTI at Oregon Health and Science University, is dedicated to developing vaccines and immunotherapies to combat diseases such as AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, and diseases associated with emerging viral infections such as Dengue fever and pandemic influenza. The three-story, 101,000-sf facility contains 11,000 nsf of vivarium/containment space with integrated procedure and in-vivo imaging spaces, nine bioscience research lab groups, specialty support labs, offices, and conference space.
Emory University began occupying the $90 million Health Sciences Research Building in Atlanta in June of 2013. Designed by ZGF Architects and built by Brasfield & Gorrie, the 200,000-sf facility provides open labs for research on immunology and vaccines, neurosciences, drug discovery, pediatric health, cancer, gastroenterology, biomedical engineering, and human genetics.
Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences at UC Berkeley serves about 450 researchers in the fields of cancer biology, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and stem cell biology. They are pursuing a multi-disciplinary approach to studying the molecular basis of these illnesses in order to research the root causes of diseases such as cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, and Alzheimer’s.
Ground was officially broken on the $1.2 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility on May 28, 2013. Located on the Manhattan campus of Kansas State University, the 574,000-gsf facility will support research on infectious disease agents and will contain BSL-4, BSL-3, BSL-3Ag, and BSL-2 laboratories. The first phase of the project is an $80 million, 87,000-sf central utility plant that is being built by joint venture partners McCarthy Building Companies and Mortenson Construction.
Continued signs of stable economic growth indicate that the recovery is gaining momentum in many parts of the United States and Canada. Construction selling prices for institutional projects grew at a 6 percent annualized rate in 2012, on top of a 3 percent increase in 2011. Construction costs are expected to continue stabilizing and rising in many regions as market confidence and capital spending increase.
The State of Vermont broke ground on a $39 million laboratory for the Department of Health in late April of 2013. Located in Colchester, the 47,844-sf building will be connected to the University of Vermont's existing biochemistry research facility to foster collaboration with investigators in the College of Medicine. The lab will house research programs on zoonotic disease agents and will support the identification of pathogens using molecular methods. The cost of construction is $30 million. Completion is expected by fall of 2014.
The University of British Columbia Centre for Comparative Medicine (CCM) is unique to British Columbia and is the largest facility of its kind in Western Canada. Spanning over 53,800 sf (5,000 square meters), the UBC CCM provides the flexibility to house and conduct research on medium- to large-sized animals and a variety of zoological species.
The Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory expanded and renovated its 19,500-sf laboratory in Amarillo to add a BSL-3 suite, the state's second such laboratory dedicated to animal disease diagnosis. The lab is designed to function primarily as a BSL-2, but contains built-in features and SOPs that allow it to convert to BSL-3 in the event of a suspected outbreak of a highly contagious animal and/or zoonotic disease.
The University of British Columbia's (UBC) state-of-the-art Centre for Comparative Medicine (CCM) demonstrates how providing an optimal environment for a variety of species not only is positive from an ethical standpoint, but also fosters better scientific research and can be a good business decision.
Spurred into action by a broken autoclave, Rush University Medical Center gutted and rebuilt its 30-plus-year-old BSL-3 lab and its anteroom, while converting existing adjacent offices into a dedicated mechanical room. The primary goals with the renovation were to bring the lab up to contemporary BSL-3 standards and to isolate its infrastructure and utilities from the rest of the Jelke Building, a mixed-use lab and patient-care building.
The Helmholtz Center Munich has selected HDR TMK to design the new Center of Integrated Diabetes Research in Germany. The four-story facility will include more than 50,000 sf of space dedicated to multidisciplinary diabetes research. HDR TMK will provide architectural, laboratory planning, and contract administration services for the approximately $41.6 million building. The BSL-2 life sciences center will facilitate basic research, translational research, epidemiology, and clinical applications as they relate to diabetes.
The Department of Homeland Security began site work for the 87,000-sf Central Utility Plant for the planned 574,000-sf National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in March of 2013. The value of the construction contract is $80 million and the joint venture contractors for the project are McCarthy Building Companies and Mortenson Construction. Located at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., the facility will house heating and cooling systems as well as diesel generators for emergency power supply.
