Research and Development

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory broke ground on the $54 million Solar Energy Research Center (SERC) in October of 2012. The three-story, 40,000-sf facility will support research on electrochemical and photovoltaic solar energy technologies. Designed by SmithGroup of San Francisco, SERC will house the northern branch of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a laboratory created in partnership with the California Institute of Technology.

Southern Research Institute (SRI) dedicated a $5.6 million engineering laboratory in October of 2012 in Birmingham, Ala. Located at SRI's Engineering Research Center, the ERC Phase II facility features a large structures evaluation suite for testing aerospace and industrial components and a vibration-isolated electro-optics lab. The 19,000-sf project includes two floors of offices and three high-bay labs.

Western Michigan University broke ground in October of 2012 on a $68 million renovation of the School of Medicine in Kalamazoo. Designed by S/L/A/M Collaborative, the project will create a simulation center, classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, research labs, and an auditorium in the existing 320,000-sf building. A 30,000-sf addition will also be constructed. The general contractor is Walbridge. Completion is expected in May of 2014. 

ATMI broke ground on an 118,000-sf microelectronics manufacturing facility in Suwon, South Korea, in October of 2012. The facility is located in the Korea Advanced Nano Fab Center and will begin production in mid-2013. Accommodating 100 employees, the center will produce a range of products for the semiconductor manufacturing market. 

Wayne State University broke ground on the $93 million Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research Building in October of 2012 in Detroit. Designed by Harley Ellis Devereaux, the 200,000-sf project includes 127,700 gsf of renovated space and 75,000 gsf of new construction. Providing wet and dry labs, faculty offices, and clinical space, the facility will house programs in bioinformatics, computational biology, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, biomedical engineering, and systems biology. The general contractor is Barton Malow.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research opened the $66 million NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) in Cheyenne in October of 2012. Supporting advanced climate modeling, the 153,000-sf facility houses a 1.5 petaflop IBM supercomputer with over 100,000 processors in a 24,000-sf area with a sub-floor ten feet deep to accommodate infrastructure and cooling needs. The project was built by Saunders Construction of Denver and has attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification. 

Researchers at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the United Kingdom have developed a way to safely anesthetize and transfer animals from BSL-3 and BSL-4 containment to a mobile imaging facility for CT and MRI scans without breaking the containment barrier. The process allows them to obtain the high-resolution, three-dimensional images necessary for their research without building a costly suite onsite.

The University of Massachusetts Lowell opened the $80 million Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC) in October of 2012. Designed by HDR and built by Turner Construction, the 84,000-sf facility accommodates research in nanotechnology, molecular biology, plastics engineering, and optics. The building houses a biomedical materials development lab, a high bay manufacturing area, a compounding lab, and a nanotechnology R&D center with wet and dry chemistry, biology, and materials labs.

Colorado State University began construction in October of 2012 on a 65,000-sf million expansion of the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory in Fort Collins. The $18.5 million project will provide additional research space for the College of Engineering and a business incubator. LEED Platinum sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility, which will feature combined heat and power, nighttime cold storage, and the use of wind, solar, and biomass fuel sources.

The District of Columbia opened the $210 million Consolidated Forensic Laboratory in October of 2012 in Washington. The 351,000-sf (287,000-nsf) facility provides diagnostic labs for public health, autopsies, DNA testing, and the investigation of bioterrorism threats. The eight-story building includes two floors below grade and includes a BSL-3 suite.

Marshall University broke ground in October of 2012 on the $50 million Applied Engineering Complex in Huntington, Va. The multistory facility will house the College of Information Technology and Engineering; the departments of Mathematics and Computational Science; a computer modeling, digital imaging, and simulation suite; the Transportation Research Corporation; the Marshall University Research Corporation; and mechanical, electrical engineering, and biomedical research labs.

The University of Ottawa broke ground on the Advanced Research Complex (ARC) in September of 2012. The $57 million project will house the Centre for Advanced Photonics and geoscience laboratories. The facility will feature low-vibration research spaces, constructed on an isolated slab, with refined temperature and humidity controls. The ARC will house an accelerator mass spectrometer and lasers for research in nanophotonics. Completion is expected in spring of 2014.

The University of Leicester opened a £16 million animal research facility in September of 2012 in the United Kingdom. The three-story, 48,000-sf Central Research Facility provides biomedical research laboratories, vivarium space for mice and rats, and advanced imaging suites. Construction began on the project in summer of 2010.

The University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences opened its new home, the $62 million John and Editha Kapoor Hall in September of 2012. Designed by S/L/A/M Collaborative, the 147,000-sf building provides teaching and research labs, classrooms, conference rooms, and computer labs. Supporting clinical and translational research, the building will accommodate the study of proteomics, protein therapeutics, and pharmacogenomics. Ground was broken on the project in September of 2009.

The University of Waterloo opened the $160 million Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre in September of 2012. Designed by KPMB Architects of Toronto, the 276,000-sf, five-story facility features a 10,000-sf fabrication cleanroom, a metrology suite, teaching and research labs, seminar rooms, and faculty offices. Providing a research environment with minimal vibration, radio frequency interference, and electromagnetic interference, the building houses the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.