Government

NASA broke ground on July 16, 2007 on the Exploration Sciences Building in Greenbelt, Md. Located at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the three-story environmentally friendly office and laboratory building was designed by EwingCole, an architecture and engineering firm with offices in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. M+W Zander provided laboratory planning consultation. Providing state of the art labs and technologies, the facility will accommodate research in space and earth science.

Construction has begun on the Nassau County Public Safety Center (NCPSC) located in a former warehouse complex in Westbury, N.Y. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA) designed the new facility on behalf of Nassau County. URS Corporation is the construction manager for the project. The program manager is Carter Burgess.

The renovation and expansion of the Virginia Capitol reached completion in early summer of 2007. Gilbane Building Company, in association with The Christman Company, provided construction management services for the project, which included 91,000 sf of historic renovation and 10,000 sf of addition. The Hillier Group provided architectural services. The project includes an underground visitor center and a utility loop that supports the renovation of the Capitol building and the future needs within Capitol Square.

Brookhaven National Laboratory dedicated the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) in Upton, N.Y., on May 21, 2007. HDR Architecture  provided full A/E services for this new facility that will provide researchers state-of-the-art capabilities to explore and develop nanoscale materials aimed at helping the U.S. achieve energy independence. The 94,500-sf facility is the last of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers built by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at its national laboratories.

The Canadian federal government has announced the recipients of its 2007 research budget allocations. Science and technology growth will be supported by $1.3 billion in funding, including:

• $510 million to the Canada Foundation for Innovation 
• $350 million to Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research 
• $120 million to CANARIE to develop a next-generation research broadband network 
• $100 million to Genome Canada 
• $10 million to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research

The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is partnering with the National Institutes of Health to construct the $85 million Molecular Sciences Complex on UPR’s Rio Piedras campus. The six-story, 150,000-sf facility was designed by The Hillier Group of New York with PRIDCO of San Juan as project developer.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to construct a $377.7 million medical center in the Lake Nona area of Orlando, Fla. The project includes a 134-bed hospital, a 120-bed nursing home, and an outpatient clinic. Construction is expected to begin within one year, with completion possible by 2012. The facility, which will serve veterans from ten counties, will be located adjacent to the University of Central Florida Medical School and The Burnham Institute.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) opened the NRC Institute for Nutrisciences and Health in Charlottetown in early 2007. Sited on the campus of the University of Prince Edward Island, the $13.5-million collaborative facility houses open labs and offices for research and commercialization of nutriscience research discoveries. The Institute includes incubator space and laboratories to enable companies and researchers access to specialized equipment and industry expertise.

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 .

Idaho State University is partnering with the Idaho National Laboratory to construct the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) in Idaho Falls. The CAES facility will be an international user facility for promoting and performing research and revitalizing education and training in nuclear energy science, engineering, technology, and related disciplines. The facility is expected to encompass 50,000 gsf to 60,000 gsf with approximately half of the building dedicated to laboratory space. Occupancy is slated for 2008.

The General Services Administration has selected Centex Construction to build the Center for Devices and Radiological Health for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Md. The $87-million project will include office space, a 150-seat conference room, file storage, and support areas.

Santa Clara County is building a $74-million forensic crime laboratory in San Jose, Calif. The four-story, 90,000-sf facility will be the first government-owned laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area with a DNA analysis system when it opens in 2008. The project, which will enable the study of physical evidence from crime scenes including toxicology, latent print processing, and substance analysis, began construction in May of 2006.

The University of Missouri-Columbia and the National Institutes of Health have awarded K&S Associates of St. Louis the $12.6 million contract to construct the new Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL). Located on the east campus with the Veterinary Medicine Complex, the 23,000-gsf BSL-3 facility will contain 9,768 sf of research and support space. The facility will feature a penthouse and full basement for HVAC, mechanical, and electrical systems and equipment.

Lewis and Clark Community College will begin construction in spring of 2007 on The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center. To be built near Godfrey, Ill., at the confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers, the river ecology center will provide space for teaching and public outreach as well as developing watershed and river management strategies.

Columbia University Medical Center in New York has received an award from the National Institutes of Health of $54 million over five years to establish the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Columbia is one of twelve academic medical centers in the U.S. to receive this Clinical and Translational Science Award. This funding will support construction that will enable Columbia to expand dedicated clinical/translational research space by 40 percent to a total of 35,000 sf.