Research and Development

Texas Tech University is renovating an 80,000-sf facility in Lubbock to create the Maddox Engineering Center. The $30 million project will provide classrooms, wet labs, and materials testing suites for the Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering. A 25,000-sf materials characterization center, located in the basement, will be available for use by industry and academic partners. The project includes the complete renovation of a former mass communications building and the installation of new utilities, infrastructure, and finishes.

Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center broke ground in February of 2016 on a $230 million children's hospital in Baton Rouge. Providing advanced pediatric care and research facilities, the six-story, 350,000-sf project will include an emergency department, laboratories, surgical suites, inpatient rooms, and a dedicated hematology and oncology unit. An adjacent four-story, 95,000-sf medical office building will offer clinical space for pediatric medical specialties. Completion is expected in late 2018.
 

Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine celebrated the opening of the $27 million Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics in February of 2016 in Philadelphia. Accommodating the production of personalized cancer treatments using chimeric antigen receptor technology, the 30,000-sf facility features 23,610 sf of laboratory and cell therapy manufacturing space as well as a 6,300-sf cleanroom.

The University of East Anglia began site work in February of 2016 on the $140 million Quadram Institute, a new biomedical research facility located in the Norwich Research Park in the United Kingdom. Housing the Institute of Food Research, the multidisciplinary project is being created in partnership with Norwich University Hospital and will accommodate the study of gut flora in the human microbiome, healthy aging, and food innovation and safety.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is planning to construct the $45.7 million Meat Science and Muscle Biology Lab. The two-story, 67,540-sf project will provide a biosafety laboratory, a meat laboratory, a teaching facility, and faculty offices. An existing structure currently located on the site, the Seed Building, will be demolished to allow the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Lab to be built. Construction will begin in July of 2017 with occupancy expected in spring of 2018.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center is building the $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha. The project includes construction of a 10-story, 252,000-sf research tower with 98 laboratories, as well as a seven-story, 325,000-sf treatment facility with 108 inpatient beds and a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic. The center is being created in association with The Nebraska Medical Center. Construction began on the public-private project in May of 2013 and completion is expected in spring of 2017.

The UWM Innovation Accelerator, funded in part by a federal economic development grant as the first building in a planned Innovation Park, is a public-private partnership that collocates business, industry, and academic research to launch intellectual property. The two-story building is sited to leverage the technology available in nearby institutions, such as the Milwaukee County Medical Complex, Children’s Hospital, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, and to attract researchers, faculty, students, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors.

SoBran BioScience is creating an animal research facility in Greensboro, N.C. Located on the north campus of the Gateway University Research Park, the laboratory and office building will support collaborative partnerships with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The facility will provide 8,500 sf of preclinical lab space designed to meet ISO 9001-2008 and GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) standards and attain full AAALAC accreditation.

Beijing Construction Engineering Group and the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom have signed a five-year agreement to collaboratively develop Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies. The partnership will leverage BCEG's expertise in lean construction practices with the University of Huddersfield's new degree program in Design Integration and Building Information Modeling. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will also create employment opportunities at BCEG for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Auburn University began construction in February of 2016 on two new health science facilities in Auburn, Ala. Designed to support advanced instruction in team-based healthcare, the $29 million School of Nursing will feature simulation labs, active learning classrooms, and spacious interdisciplinary teaching labs. The three-story, 89,000-sf building will also provide research space, faculty offices, conference rooms, a tiered auditorium, and a student lounge.

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering has announced the 2016 ISPE Facility of the Year Awards category winners:

The University of Cambridge is planning to build a $125 million biomedical research facility in the United Kingdom. The six-story, 190,000-sf Project Capella will house the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, the Milner Therapeutics Institute, the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, and the Cambridge Centre for Haematopoiesis and Haematological Malignancies. Lean construction methodology will be implemented in the delivery of the facility, which is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2018.

Saint-Gobain opened a $30 million research and development facility in Chennai in January of 2016. Located in the IIT-Madras Research Park, the 120,000-sf facility will support the creation of recycled building materials for modular housing projects. Pilot housing developments in four separate climatic regions have also been constructed so that the performance of different structures and materials may be evaluated.

The University of Toronto opened the $52.7 million Environmental Science and Chemistry Building in January of 2016. Located on the Scarborough campus in Toronto, the 110,000-sf facility was designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects and delivered with design-build construction partner EllisDon. Providing flexible teaching and research space for the study of climate change and environmental science, the five-story collaborative building houses classrooms, laboratories, and academic offices connected by a skylit forum and crossroads.

VU University Medical Center will begin construction in March of 2016 on the 172,222-sf VUmc Imaging Center Amsterdam. Providing flexible laboratories for biomedical research, the six-story facility will promote interaction and collaboration by collocating the hospital's radiology and nuclear medicine departments in a single location. The sustainably designed project will be constructed to attain a BREEAM Very Good rating by a joint venture of De Beeldbouwers VOF and Ballast Nedam.