Research and Development

The Department of Energy will begin construction in April of 2014 on a $10 million research facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. The project will be designed and built by DGR Grant Construction in collaboration with Meier Architecture & Engineering. The 22,000-sf facility will provide labs, computational space, and offices to support research on power grid dynamics and renewable energy technologies, as well as housing PNNL's Building Operations Control Center and sustainability program.

The University of Tennessee has begun renovating Sophronia Strong Hall to create an advanced science laboratory facility. The completed nine-story, 268,000-sf building will house the departments of anthropology and earth and planetary sciences, as well as providing instructional space and open, flexible labs for the departments of biology and chemistry. The $114 million project is expected to reach completion in early 2016. LEED Silver sustainable design will be sought for the renovated facility.

Maersk Oil opened its digital core laboratory in January of 2014 in Doha, Qatar. Supporting research in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the facility features a computed tomography (CT) scanning suite to provide three-dimensional imagery of the pores of oil-bearing rocks. The petrophysical data revealed by the scans can be used to optimize oil flow. The laboratory is part of a $100 million, ten-year investment by Maersk in applied research and was created in partnership with Qatar Petroleum.

The University of Alaska Anchorage is building the $123 million Engineering & Industry Building. Providing classrooms and laboratories for the College of Engineering, the facility will support instruction in eleven disciplines including mechanical, electrical, civil, arctic, and computer systems engineering. The 80,000-sf building will feature computer-aided-design (CAD) labs and a prototyping lab with 3D printers.

The National Institutes of Health opened a BSL-3 laboratory in Islamabad, Pakistan, in January of 2014. The facility will enable the rapid detection of biological agents and pathogens that pose a threat to public health. The lab will also accommodate research in virology and molecular biology in partnership with academic and industry partners.

All Children's Hospital is partnering with the University of South Florida to create a 300,000-sf pediatric research facility in St. Petersburg. Housing 40 investigators, the project will support medical education, training, and joint research in areas including neuroscience, behavioral health, and early childhood diseases. The estimated construction cost of the facility is $75 million.

The five-story Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI) serves as an interdisciplinary center of research on alternative energy, and as a living example of sustainable design.

The University of Michigan has completed the second renovation phase of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Laboratory in Ann Arbor. Designed by Lord Aeck Sargent, the $11.1 million project included construction of a 10,161-sf addition to house the University of Michigan Energy Institute and the creation of advanced laboratory space on the second floor of the existing building. The completed facility includes a 2,108-sf chemistry lab with 12 fume hoods, a 1,082-sf chemistry lab with two fume hoods, research offices, and an executive conference room.

Baxter Healthcare is building a $1 billion biopharmaceutical manufacturing campus in Covington, Ga. Located in the Stanton Springs development, the 1 million-sf complex will provide laboratories, manufacturing space, testing suites, and warehouse and distribution facilities to support the production of advance plasma-based therapeutics. Construction manager Fluor broke ground on the project in August of 2012 and completion is expected in 2016. Commercial production of biologics will commence in 2018 at the campus, which will accommodate 1,500 employees.

The University of Wyoming began construction on the $50 million Michael B. Enzi STEM Facility in Laramie in January of 2014. The three-story, 100,000-sf facility will provide 32 teaching labs for chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer science. The building will also include eight prep rooms, eight offices, a commons area, and an atmospheric sciences lab to support collaborative research with the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne.

The University of South Florida broke ground on the $50 million USF Health Heart Institute in Tampa in December of 2013. The five-story, 100,000-sf facility will feature four core laboratories for basic and applied research, including regenerative medicine; pharmacology and drug discovery; bioinformatics and genomics; and integrative cell and organ physiology. The interdisciplinary project is created in partnership with Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute and is slated for completion in 2015.

Construction will begin in early 2014 on the $50 million Water Campus in Baton Rouge, La. The 30-acre development will provide research, engineering, and administrative facilities for government agencies, academic institutions, and industry partners. The first phase of construction will feature Louisianna State University's 50,000-sf River Modeling Center which will include a small scale representation of the lower Mississippi River.

Monash Health has selected Lend Lease Building as the construction manager for the 134,550-sf Monash Translational Research Facility in Melbourne, Australia. Created in partnership with Monash University, Monash Institute of Medical Research, and Prince Henry’s Institute, the $76 million project will accommodate research on cancer, neurology, inflammatory and infectious diseases, and endocrinology and metabolism. Construction will begin in 2014 with completion expected in late 2015.

Michelin is building a $230 million research building on its Ladoux campus in France. Occupancy of the 721,000-sf Campus RDI (Research, Development, Industrialization) facility will occur in phases between late 2015 and 2018. The project is part of a $370 million, six-year retrofit of Michelin's facilities in France.