Research and Development

The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute broke ground on a $74.2 million outpatient Facility in Tampa in January of 2013. The eight-story, 150,000-sf building will house research labs, four ambulatory surgical suites, a diagnostic imaging center, clinical space, and administrative offices. Occupancy is expected in February of 2015. Moffitt is a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center and is headquartered on the campus of the University of South Florida.

Texas A&M University is planning to build the $285.6 million Pandemic Influenza Facility in the Bryan-College Station BioCorridor. The 151,600-sf project will accommodate the development of countermeasures for pandemic and biological threats and is supported by $176 million in federal funding. The facility will house cleanrooms for vaccine manufacturing, decontamination rooms, quality control labs, and a central utility plant. Construction will begin in June of 2013 with completion expected in December of 2014.

General Motors will construct a 138,000-sf addition to its Global Powertrain Engineering Headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. The $200 million office facility will consolidate leased space from three disparate locations, enabling GM to reduce its engineering footprint by 640,000 sf. Completion is expected in mid-2014.

The UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona is a four-story, 100,000-gsf research, academic, and conferencing facility which enables the University of Florida to continue its mission at the Lake Nona Medical City in Orlando, Fla.

The Daikin McQuay Applied Development Center is a state-of-the-art, research and development facility for innovative high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) technologies. The Center develops and tests advanced chiller, compressor, and other HVAC technologies to reduce energy consumption and ultimately the carbon footprint of buildings.

The Kerry Innovation and Technical Center, a 260,000-sf facility on 124 acres in Beloit, Wis., serves as the US headquarters for Kerry Ingredients and Flavours and provides customer access to many of Kerry's technologies. It is a Center of Excellence dedicated to development and application of Kerry's ingredients and beverage solutions. The Center contains various developmental laboratories and pilot plant facilities to enable this research.

Six translational research companies have come together to form the Global Alliance of Leading Drug Discovery and Development Centres. The founding organizations include The Scripps Research Institute of Jupiter, Fla.; the UK's Medical Research Council Technology and Cancer Research Technology; KU Leuven's Centre for Drug Design and Discovery in Belgium; Germany's Lead Discovery Center; and the Centre for Drug Research and Development in Canada.

The University of Miami is building the 81,000-sf Marine Technology Life Sciences Seawater Complex. Located on the Virginia Key Campus in Miami, the $47 million project includes the Marine Life Sciences Center and the  Surge-Structure Atmosphere Interaction (SUSTAIN) research lab. Providing research space for the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the complex will feature a 28,000-gallon tank with a three-dimensional simulator able to create Category 5 hurricane winds. The center will also include a facility for the culture and study of sea hares.

Designed as an integral part of Genzyme's Framingham Corporate Campus Master Plan, the 186,000-sf Biologics Support Center provides support space for the adjacent Framingham Cell Culture Expansion as well as other Genzyme manufacturing facilities.

Samsung Semiconductor is planning to build a 680,000-sf R&D facility in San Jose, Calif. Replacing the company's existing 200,000-sf office building, the ten-story project will feature abundant internal vegetation for optimal indoor air quality. LEED sustainable design certification will be sought for the building, which will include a photovoltaic array, rain gardens, a green roof, and an eight-story parking garage. Occupancy is expected in 2015.

Missouri State University is building a $3.2 million vivarium facility in Springfield. The 5,000-gsf project is being constructed as an addition connecting to the existing Temple Hall. The facility will provide animal housing space, support, an administrative office, and a shower for animal care staff. The vivarium will accommodate research on mammalian species while providing a new aquatics lab for the study of fish and mussels.

Glasgow University will open the Beatson Translational Research Centre in spring of 2013. Housing 150 scientists, the project will provide collaborative laboratories for interdisciplinary cancer research. The $16 million facility is located on the University's Garscube campus in the Bearsden area of Glasgow, Scotland.

Amgen will build a $200 million monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility in the Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore. The plant will supply both clinical and commercial products. Construction will begin in spring of 2013.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is planning to build the $115 million Williamson Translational Research Building in Lebanon, N.H. The 165,000-sf facility will provide collaborative research space supporting the integration of medical discoveries into patient care. Construction is expected to begin on the project in spring of 2013.

Recent high-profile natural disasters and human-based incidents are driving vivarium facility owners to reevaluate their disaster and contingency plans. Traditional approaches to risk assessment and research preservation are often over-simplified, understaffed, and insufficiently funded. A new shift in thinking focuses on preparing for the net results of losing utilities, an entire building, or access to a section of campus rather than the initial causes.