Biomedical

The Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center of South Texas, a 3.4-million veterinary medical facility, will begin construction in North San Antonio by November 2003. Slated for completion in January 2005, the 18,500-sf center will house animal medicine specialties including oncology, radiology, internal medicine, dermatology, physical therapy, surgery, and ophthalmology. The facility will also house a 24-hour emergency department. The project architect is Marmon Mok with Metropolitan Contracting Co. as general contractor.     

The University of Washington is renovating the 105,00-sf Blue Flame Building in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle as the future home of UW Medicine Lake Union. Vulcan Inc. is the design and construction planner for the project, which is slated to begin in January and reach completion in November 2004. The building will house cancer research, the Program for Translational Medicine in Women's Health, and the Center for Cardiovascular Biology.

Yale School of Medicine’s Biomedical Research and Teaching Facility, known as 300 Cedar Street, is designed to maximize collaboration between basic and clinical scientific disciplines. Designed by Payette Associates, the 450,000-gsf project was dedicated on the New Haven, Ct.,campus in May 2003. A six-story, 350,000-gsf wing supports flexible laboratories for 700 scientists focused on disease-related research. A four-story, 100,000-gsf wing supports medical education including the school’s new gross anatomy and histology teaching laboratories for medical and physician associate students.

Washington University School of Medicine recently completed the $5-million renovation of the fifth floor of the McDonnell Medical Sciences Building. The 30,000-sf project involved gutting the existing floor and constructing new offices, laboratories, cold rooms, microscope rooms, and tissue culture rooms for the departments of molecular oncology and cell biology. The renovation also included the creation of a BSL-3 laboratory. The project contractor was Tarlton Corp. of St. Louis.

Emory University is creating the Epithelial Pathobiology Research Development Center in Atlanta. The center will be comprised of three core facilities including imaging and gene expression analysis operations. Housing 15 investigators from four School of Medicine departments, the center is being funded by a five-year, $2.6-million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The University of Louisville has selected architects Arrasmith, Judd, Rapp, Chovan Inc. of Louisville and SmithGroup of Detroit to design its third biomedical research building at the downtown Health Sciences Campus. The $98 million, 250,000-sf facility is expected to reach seven or eight stories in height and will be constructed on a former U of L parking lot.

The Düsseldorf, Germany-based Profil Institute for Metabolic Research is relocating its U.S. headquarters to 8,000-sf in Chula Vista, Calif. The facility is slated to open in October 2003 and will house administrative, research, and quality assurance operations. The Profil Institute is a clinical research organization that contracts with biotech and pharmaceutical firms to test experimental drugs for diabetes in metabolic disorders.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is moving its mailroom operations and some functions, including facility maintenance, from Atlanta to 122,600 sf in Chamblee, Ga. The move is based partly on security concerns and will occur after build-out in early 2004.

The University of Florida has recently completed a modular research complex of BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratory space. Buildings for Science, a division of Britz-Heidbrink, completed the design, production, and installation of this world-class research facility in less than one year. The complex has its own mechanical room area, an office-break area, a unisex bathroom/change area, a pass-through shower into the BSL-3 lab with accommodating locker space, and two separate procedure areas.

ICN Biomedicals, a supplier of research products to life science companies, will occupy 9,165 sf in Livermore, Calif., near the Municipal Airport. The space will house the company’s R&D operations.

Brisbane, Calif.-based VaxGen has opened an $11-million facility in South San Francisco that will manufacture the company’s anthrax vaccine, AIDS vaccine, and products ranging from smallpox vaccine to monoclonal antibodies. The 17,000-sf facility is adjacent to the company’s research and development operations, and features stainless steel bioprocessors and purifiers. The facility can be easily reconfigured as manufacturing requirements change as much of the equipment is on wheels.

The University of Maryland-Baltimore’s planned Biomedical Research Park in West Baltimore has received $4 million to assist startup companies from the state’s Sunny Day Fund. The funding will enable young companies to make needed office and lab improvements.

Exact Sciences Corp. is relocating from Maynard, Mass. into a 55,000-sf office and laboratory space at Building One at 3Com Drive in Marlborough. Exact Sciences, a company that uses applied genomics for the early detection of common cancer types, has contracted Newton-based Diversified Project Management to manage the relocation.  

Biomedical Research Models of Worcester, Mass., has relocated part of its operations to 10,000 sf in Springfield. The facility is slated to open in early July of 2003. Biomedical Research Models is affiliated with the Springfield-based Bio-Economic Technology Alliance (BETA), an organization focused on the development of a cluster of biotech manufacturing companies in the area.

Venter Science Foundation Joint Technology Center will open its 60,000-sf facility in Rockville in June 2003. The high-throughput DNA sequencing center will enable scientists from Craig Venter’s Center for the Advancement of Genomics (TCAG) and Duke University to work together to refine genomics research and lower the cost of DNA sequencing technologies. TCAG is a non-profit genomics research and policy center.