Research and Development

Stanford University is planning to construct the $95 million Photon Science Laboratory Building at SLAC National Accelerator Lab in Palo Alto, Calif. The project will provide a world-class collaborative research facility for SLAC and four joint institutes: the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, and the Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering Institute.

Winthrop-University Hospital opened the $110 million Research and Academic Center in February of 2015 in Mineola, N.Y. Designed by Perkins Eastman, the five-story, 95,000-sf facility will support translational research on pediatric and adult diabetes in conjunction with patient care and community education. The center provides classrooms, a clinical trials center, a simulation training suite, a 350-seat auditorium, and core labs for the study of diabetes, obesity, cardiopulmonary disease, and neurology.

Michigan State University is planning to build an $85 million research facility for the College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids. The 163,000-sf facility will feature opens labs for team-based research and is slated for completion in fall of 2017. SmithGroupJJR is providing architectural and engineering services for the project, and the facility will be built by a joint venture of Rockford Construction and Clark Construction Company.

McGill University Health Centre opened its new $310 million Research Institute in Montreal in February of 2015. Designed to support the integration of research and clinical care, the facility houses the Centre for Translational Biology, the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and the McConnell Centre for Innovative Medicine, which will accommodate clinical trials. The design and construction cost of the Research Institute was $210 million with $100 million for equipment and instrumentation.

GlaxoSmithKline is building an active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing plant in Montrose in the United Kingdom. Doosan Babcock was awarded the $37 million construction contract for the project, which is expected to be fully operational in summer of 2016. The three-story, 291,000-sf facility will support the production of therapeutic agents for respiratory conditions.

The four-story, 80,000-sf Research and Graduate Education Complex on the campus of Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) is a state-of-the-art biomedical research facility for researchers from the colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Graduate Studies. Three floors of laboratories and support spaces house more than 30 scientists and their teams, with space for 156 bench researchers. The building also contains office space for faculty, write-up areas for research staff and students, and small-group teaching and seminar rooms.

Texas Tech University dedicated the 1,600-sf Biological Threat Research Laboratory in Lubbock in January of 2014. The BSL-3 facility supports basic and applied research on biological pathogens and toxins. Construction began on the $2.4 million project in September of 2012 and reached completion in summer of 2013.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology completed construction in January of 2015 on China's first maximum containment biosafety laboratory. Located in the Hubei province, the facility will support research on Class 4 Pathogens (P4) including Ebola and smallpox. The lab was created in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Institut Merieux, a French biomedical firm. Construction began on the project in July of 2011.

The National University of Ireland Galway began construction in January of 2015 on the 88,000-sf Human Biology Building. Designed by Scott Talon Walker Architects, the five-story teaching and research facility will provide labs, lecture halls, and offices for the departments of anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology. The Human Biology Building will also include a vivarium, a microscopy suite, and anatomy and mortuary space. The construction cost of the project is $34 million and the general contractor is BAM Group Ireland.

The New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is building a new 6,500-sf facility in Durham. Located on the campus of the University of New Hampshire, the $2.5 million project will support the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases. The facility represents a partnership between the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies broke ground in January of 2015 on a 62,000-sf biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Designed to support collaborative research and development, the three-story BioProcess Innovation Center will accommodate the creation and production of advanced proteins, vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies. The project team includes Alexandria Real Estate Equities and KBR Building Group. Completion is expected in late 2015.

Coventry University will begin construction in mid-2015 on a $50 million facility for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences in the United Kingdom. The five-story multidisciplinary building will provide classrooms, simulation suites for medical training, science labs, and core research space. The 121,200-gsf (75,500-nsf) project will be built by BAM Construction. Completion is expected by fall of 2017.

A unique public-private partnership is fast-tracking advanced manufacturing research and spurring development of the industry’s next-generation workforce, according to Barry Johnson, senior associate dean at the University of Virginia (UVA). The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM) is an industry-driven collective with an applied research facility near Richmond that connects schools where research originates with companies who will apply it to commercialization.

The American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute opened in Detroit in January of 2015. The $148 million facility was created by a public-private partnership that includes the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Alcoa, Boeing, Johnson Controls, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The 100,000-sf center provides research, development, and production space to support the creation of advanced manufacturing technologies using lightweight metals and alloys.

Montana Tech will break ground in April of 2015 on the $10 million Natural Resources Research Center in Butte. Representing an expansion of the existing Engineering Laboratory Classroom Building, the three-story, 32,000-sf addition will provide instructional space, a student project studio area, and labs for nanotechnology, energy, and petroleum research. Occupancy is expected in fall of 2016.