Research and Development

Louisiana State University is planning a $100 million expansion and renovation of the College of Engineering in Baton Rouge. The renovation of the three-story, 306,000-sf Patrick F. Taylor Hall will begin in November of 2014. In January of 2015, construction will commence on a 126,000-sf expansion providing engineering wet labs, teaching and research labs, faculty offices, classrooms, student support areas, and a 200-seat auditorium. The general contractor is Skanska USA Building in joint venture with MAPP Construction.

The University of Wyoming will begin construction in early 2015 on the $30 million High Bay Research Facility in Laramie. The 60,000-sf project will provide flexible, large-scale research space for advanced engineering experiments and will include a geomechanics lab, a core-flood suite, a structural engineering lab, and possibly a wind tunnel. The High Bay Research Facility will also house offices, conference rooms, and smaller conventional laboratories.

Rutgers University broke ground in June of 2014 on the $115 million Chemistry and Chemical Biology Building. Designed by Flad Architects, the four-story, 145,000-sf facility is sited on the Busch campus in Piscataway, N.J., and will support multidisciplinary collaboration with integrated teaching, research, and support space. Core facilities will include a microscopy suite, a class 100 chemistry cleanroom, and labs for optical spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography.

The National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Disease (NCBID) will begin construction in early 2015 on a $65 million biocontainment facility in Wallaceville, New Zealand. Designed by Merrick, the project will support advanced diagnostic testing for new and emerging infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases that can impact human health. The facility will replace the existing animal health laboratory at the site and will meet international biosecurity standards.

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital will begin construction in summer of 2014 on a $40 million research and teaching building in Liverpool, U.K. Designed by Hopkins Architects, the 75,000-sf, three-story project will provide research and teaching labs, offices, meeting rooms, lecture halls, breakout spaces, and a library. Comprising two wings adjoining a curved central atrium, the flexible facility will feature a corridor-free interior to encourage interaction and collaboration.

Central Washington University is building the $64 million Science II facility in Ellensburg, Wash. Ground was broken on the five-story, 120,000-sf project in May of 2014 and completion is expected in spring of 2016. Accommodating the departments of geological sciences and physics as well as programs in math and astronomy, the facility will feature an 80-seat lecture hall and planetarium, an observatory tower, optics and laser labs, an ice core lab, and an acoustic lab with an anechoic chamber.

The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) is partnering with Wuhan Frasergen Bioinformatics to create a biomedical research center in Wuhan, China. The facility will support the transfer of basic research to clinical care to provide personalized medicine solutions for cancer and hereditary diseases. JAX's immunocompromised mice will be used as hosts for tumors donated by Chinese patients to enable the development of pharmaceutical therapies.

Princeton University is building the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment in Princeton, N.J. Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects of New York as three interconnected structures, the 129,000-gsf interdisciplinary facility will feature a cleanroom, teaching labs, classrooms, offices, a lecture hall, conference rooms, and low-vibration labs for nanotechnology research and imaging. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the project, which is slated for completion in 2015.

The University of Rhode Island broke ground on the $68 million Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences in June of 2014. The five-story, 135,000-sf facility will house teaching labs, research labs, lecture halls, classrooms, offices, an instrumentation suite, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence for Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response. The project team includes Wilson Architects of Boston and Bacon Construction of East Providence, R.I. Completion is expected in spring of 2016.

Tufts University received permission from the Boston Public Health Commission in June of 2014 to begin operating the Arnold 8 Biosafety Laboratory. Supporting tuberculosis research, the BSL-3 facility is located in the Tufts School of Medicine’s Biomedical Research and Public Health Building. Development of the 1,700-sf lab began in spring of 2012 with construction commencing in February of 2013. The project architect was Shawmut Design & Construction.

The University of Tampere began construction in June of 2014 on a $64 million medical teaching and research building in Finland. The 273,400-sf project is being built by NCC Construction and will provide instructional space, teaching and research labs, and administrative offices. Completion is expected in May of 2016.

The U.S. Department of Energy broke ground on the $10 million Sensitive Instrument Facility at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa in June of 2014. Located in the Applied Sciences complex near Iowa State University, the 13,300-sf materials science research lab will house advanced electron and scanning probe microscopes in six laboratory bays built to mitigate vibration and electromagnetic interference. The design team includes M+W Zander, Sears Gerber Architecture, and Snyder & Associates.

Auburn University opened the Magnet Lab in May of 2014 in Auburn, Ala. Housed in the Department of Physics, the facility provides the College of Science and Mathematics with a 6,000-pound superconducting magnet for plasma physics research. Creation of the laboratory was supported by a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation award in the amount of $2.1 million, which includes a 30 percent cost-sharing by Auburn University.

HemoShear occupied its new headquarters and research facility in Charlottesville in May of 2014. The renovated building provides 16,000 sf of lab and office space with 12,000 sf to accommodate future growth. The facility will accommodate streamlined R&D operations with advanced instrumentation to support HemoShear's translational human tissue platforms and predictive bioanalytics for pharmaceutical discovery.

The University of Minnesota is planning an $85 million renovation of the 87-year-old Tate Laboratory of Physics in Minneapolis. The project will provide modern lecture halls and classrooms, instructional labs, faculty offices, collaborative study spaces, conference rooms, and dedicated space for the Fine Theoretical Physics Institute and the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics. The building will also accommodate teaching and research programs of the School of Earth Sciences.