Research and Development

Fermilab is planning to build a $50 million facility in Lead, S.D., as the first phase of the $867 million Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) project. Housing a $250 million neutrino detector, the building will feature concrete walls ten feet thick to provide temperature insulation and shielding from cosmic rays. The detector itself will contain 10 kilotons of liquid Argon to provide cryostasis, the process of cooling to low sub-zero temperatures. The facility will be sited near the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

The University of Wollongong is building the $26 million Sustainable Buildings Research Centre in New South Wales, Australia. The 28,000-sf facility will be the first Australian project to be certified by the Living Building Challenge and is expected to attain a six-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Designed by Cox Richardson of Sydney and built by Baulderstone, the net-zero-energy and net-zero-water building will feature an advanced HVAC system, photovoltaics, wind turbines, and a ground source heat exchanger.

Although relatively small in size compared to more established research institutions, the University of New England (UNE) is making tremendous strides in growing its research and scholarship programs and infrastructure despite a shrinking pool of available grant funding. The private university, founded in 1978, began focusing its expansion efforts on biomedical research only within the past decade.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has renovated 4,000 sf of research space to consolidate its aquaculture facilities in the Eugene Braunwald Research Center, where the environmental temperature, humidity, and lighting are regulated to sustain a successful zebrafish colony. Fixed equipment includes 96 racks capable of sustaining up to 6,600 tanks; two dedicated reverse osmosis water supply systems; and new pump and filtration systems on multiple independent circuits, with separate large-scale breeding chambers and an isolated quarantine area.

The University of Minnesota is expanding and renovating the 152,800-sf Amundson Hall in Minneapolis. The project includes construction of a 41,140-sf addition and 6,676 sf of renovation and infrastructure improvements. Amundson Hall houses the department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, the Industrial Partnership for Research, and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Work began on the facility in November of 2012 and completion is expected in fall of 2014.

The University of Chicago Medical Center will open the $688 million Center for Care and Discovery in February of 2013. The 10-story, 1.2 million-sf hospital pavilion will support the research and treatment of complex medical conditions. The adjacent Mitchell Hospital will be renovated to provide single-patient rooms. 

The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) opened 30,000 sf of BSL-3 laboratory space at Fort Detrick in December of 2012. The facilities have been accredited by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, enabling the center to operate at full capacity. Construction was completed on the project in 2009. NBACC is operated by Battelle National Biodefense Institute for the Department of Homeland Security and includes 11,000 sf of BSL-4 space.

Tulane University opened the Donna and Paul Flower Hall for Research and Innovation in December of 2012 in New Orleans. Designed by Woodward Design + Build, the four-story, 24,000-sf facility includes 10,000 sf of research space housing 13 interdisciplinary laboratories. The project includes two floors of shell space, the completion of which is not included in the $7.4 million construction cost of the building. The facility will support research in energy, environmental science, gene therapy, and vaccine delivery.

The University of Manchester began building the new Manchester Cancer Research Centre in December of 2012. The $46 million facility will provide advanced laboratories for the development of personalized cancer therapies. The project is created in partnership with Cancer Research UK and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. The general contractor is Capita Symonds. Occupancy is expected in summer of 2014.

Roche will build the $260 million Diagnostics Operations Complex II in Penzberg, Germany. The 280,000-sf project will support the production of reagents used in immunoassay testing. The complex will include a six-story lab building and two single-story manufacturing facilities. Completion is expected in late 2014.

The Air Force Research Laboratory opened the $24 million Advanced Power and Thermal Research Lab in December of 2012. Located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the three-story, 53,000-sf facility provides research labs, cleanrooms, fabrication suites, blast-proof battery research chambers, and radio frequency-shielded labs for the study of electromagnetic interference. The facility was created by a complete renovation of the existing Static Test Laboratory. 

Mount Sinai Medical Center opened the $440 million Leon and Norma Hess Center for Science and Medicine in New York in December of 2012. Outpatient clinics are located on two floors of the 12-story facility with six floors dedicated to research laboratories. The 500,000-sf  Hess Center includes two basement levels housing advanced imaging technologies including a combined MRI/PET, a computed tomography scanner, and a 7 Tesla MRI.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory broke ground on the the Facility for Low-Energy Experiments on Buildings (FLEXLAB) in December of 2012. Supporting research on the energy performance of building systems, the project will include six interior and exterior testbeds occupying a 9,000-sf footprint. Providing reconfigurable research spaces, the facility will include a double-height testbed for the study of sustainable technologies for two-story structures.

The University of Michigan is planning to renovate 8,900 sf in Building 22 in the North Campus Research Complex to house the Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory. Consolidating microscopy resources currently dispersed in two separate locations, the $4.38 project will accommodate 12 microscopes for the analysis of materials on an atomic level.  

Royal DSM broke ground on a materials science research building in December of 2012 in Sittard-Geleen in the Netherlands. The R&D center will support the development of bio-based materials for the biomedical industry. Completion is expected in 2014. The project is part of a $130 million investment by Royal DSM in three new facilities in the Netherlands.