The Department of Energy opened the $135 million Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) in June of 2013. Located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., the 182,500-sf facility provides 15 labs and four outdoor test sites for electrical grid integration research. The center features a petascale supercomputer for advanced modeling and simulation as well as a hardware-in-the-loop system for product testing.
Emory University began occupying the $90 million Health Sciences Research Building in Atlanta in June of 2013. Designed by ZGF Architects and built by Brasfield & Gorrie, the 200,000-sf facility provides open labs for research on immunology and vaccines, neurosciences, drug discovery, pediatric health, cancer, gastroenterology, biomedical engineering, and human genetics.
Royal Adelaide Hospital is planning a two-building expansion of its South Australia campus. The first facility will be a seven-story medical school for the University of Adelaide providing advanced instructional space for nursing, health sciences, and possibly dentistry. Construction will begin in 2014 with completion expected in 2016. The second building is a cancer research center housing biomedical laboratories for the University of South Australia and SA Pathology; completion is expected in 2017.
McMaster University is implementing Gold Seal construction management methodology on its 147,000-sf Health Sciences Campus project in Hamilton, Ontario. Integrating industry best practices, the Gold Seal program ensures that all subcontractors with contracts over $100,000 utilize at least one Gold Seal-certified employee in their daily construction operations. The facility was designed by NORR Architects Engineers & Planners and is being built by Ball Construction.
The University of Nebraska broke ground on the $35 million College of Pharmacy and Center for Drug Discovery in June of 2013. Located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the 85,000-sf teaching and research building will provide classrooms, faculty offices, 15 drug discovery labs, a sterile compounding suite, and a model pharmacy for simulation training. The design team includes The Clark Enersen Partners and RDG Planning & Design.
Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma will open the $65 million Chemistry Research Building in Osaka in July of 2013. Located at the Osaka Research Center, the 175,690-sf facility houses laboratories for drug discovery, process chemistry, and analytical research and development. Construction began on the project in January of 2012 and reached completion in June of 2013.
Ericsson is planning to build a $1.3 billion R&D center in Montreal. Located in the suburb of Vaudreuil-Dorion, the 430,560-sf engineering facility will support product development and testing as well as housing Ericsson’s internal IT infrastructure. Occupancy is expected in 2015. Ericsson is a global manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and networks based in Sweden.
The University at Albany opened a $9.4 million biomedical laboratory in June of 2013. Accommodating 60 researchers, the collaborative 15,000-sf facility provides five 1,000-sf labs, advanced imaging equipment, and glass-walled offices for the RNA Institute. The project was built by AOW Associates with fully mobile lab benches for ease of reconfiguration. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility, which features a heat recovery system, sophisticated building controls, and abundant natural light.
Ground was officially broken on the $1.2 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility on May 28, 2013. Located on the Manhattan campus of Kansas State University, the 574,000-gsf facility will support research on infectious disease agents and will contain BSL-4, BSL-3, BSL-3Ag, and BSL-2 laboratories. The first phase of the project is an $80 million, 87,000-sf central utility plant that is being built by joint venture partners McCarthy Building Companies and Mortenson Construction.
The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) has created 15 Academic Health Science Networks to promote translational research and the application of best practices in healthcare. The 15 AHSNs are: East Midlands; Eastern; Greater Manchester; North East and North Cumbria; North West Coast; Imperial College Health Partners; Oxford; South London; South West Peninsula; Kent, Surrey and Sussex; UCL Partners; Wessex; West Midlands; West of England; and Yorkshire and Humber.
New analytical planning tools and HVAC technologies can dramatically ease the transformation of existing academic buildings into high-performance state-of-the-art science labs. Along with advances in quantitative methods to assess the potential of existing space, innovations in HVAC strategy offer compact and energy-efficient solutions that are well suited to campus structures erected for different purposes decades ago.
The six-story, 578,000-sf Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA) at the University of Alberta, Canada, brings together 800 faculty and staff from 12 departments, and 6,000 students from the Health Sciences Department, who focus on population health, computational research, and translational research.
Sheffield University is planning to construct the $123 million New Engineering Building in the United Kingdom. Construction will begin in 2013 on the 200,000-sf facility and completion is expected in 2016. Designed by RMJM, the six-story building will provide dedicated engineering facilities and flexible learning spaces including lecture halls, large and small teaching rooms, and independent study spaces.
Syngenta opened the $72 million Advanced Crop Lab in May of 2013 in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The 136,000-sf facility features 30 plant growth environments in all-glass greenhouses that are capable of simulating a variety of climates with individual controls for humidity, light, and carbon dioxide levels. Design elements of the new facility include insulated glass walls that provide a virtually shadowless indoor environment, a liquid “fertigation” system to feed and water the plants, and an automated roof-washing system.
Continued signs of stable economic growth indicate that the recovery is gaining momentum in many parts of the United States and Canada. Construction selling prices for institutional projects grew at a 6 percent annualized rate in 2012, on top of a 3 percent increase in 2011. Construction costs are expected to continue stabilizing and rising in many regions as market confidence and capital spending increase.
