Research and Development

The University of Alabama at Birmingham broke ground on the Altec/Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building in April of 2022. Designed by Williams Blackstock Architects, the $78 million project involves the renovation and expansion of the existing Lyons-Harrison Research Building to accommodate leading-edge laboratories, computational suites, collaboration spaces, meeting rooms, and offices.

AbbVie opened a 480,000-sf biomedical research center in South San Francisco in April of 2022. Offering state-of-the-art laboratories and collaborative workspaces, the leased facility will accelerate the discovery and commercialization of new cancer therapeutics. As the anchor tenant for the Gateway of Pacific’s first phase of construction, AbbVie occupies 11 contiguous floors in the 12-story structure.

The U.S. Department of Energy began construction in April of 2022 on the $75 million Grid Storage Launchpad at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. Designed by Kirksey Architecture with Arup as engineering consultant, the 86,000-sf structure will provide 35 labs for the development of advanced energy storage technologies.

North Carolina State University dedicated the $160.2 million Plant Sciences Building in Raleigh in April of 2022. Designed by Flad Architects, the 185,000-sf facility enables academic, government, and industry researchers to develop innovative solutions for global agricultural challenges.

Michigan Technological University will begin construction in May of 2022 on the H-STEM Engineering and Health Technologies Complex in Houghton. Designed by HED, the $45 million project will accommodate integrated educational programs in health-related fields and accelerate the creation of human-centered technological innovations.

Elanco Animal Health broke ground in April of 2022 on its global headquarters campus in Greenfield, Ind. Designed by RATIO Architects and CSO to serve as the foundation of a planned animal health epicenter, the $100 million complex will support collaborative R&D with business incubator High Alpha and AgriNovus, the state of Indiana’s food and agriculture initiative.

Lehigh University opened the $145 million Health, Science and Technology Building in spring of 2022 in Bethlehem, Pa. Designed by HGA to promote interdisciplinary collaboration, the 200,000-gsf facility features flexible open laboratories for research programs in biohealth, energy, and materials science. Interior glass walls enhance visibility and connectivity in the five-story structure, which includes multipurpose instructional venues, the Health Data Warehouse, and the administrative home of the College of Health.

George Mason University broke ground in April of 2022 on Fuse at Mason Square in Arlington, Va. Designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering, the $243 million facility will accommodate the Institute for Digital Innovation and graduate programs for the School of Computing. Seamlessly integrating academic, research, and commercial endeavors, the 345,000-sf building will drive collaboration among students, faculty, industry, and government partners to discover new solutions for the world’s grand challenges.

Mayo Clinic began construction in April of 2022 on the $134.6 million Integrated Education and Research Building in Phoenix. Designed CO Architects and DFDG Architecture, the 150,000-sf facility will house the College of Medicine and Science and its five schools: the Alix School of Medicine, the School of Graduate Medical Education, the School of Health Sciences, the School of Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Continuous Professional Development.

The University of Arkansas broke ground in April of 2022 on the Institute for Integrative & Innovative Research (I3R) in Fayetteville. Designed by HGA and Hufft, the $137.6 million facility will house five centers of excellence to drive discovery and commercialization in the overlapping fields of data science, food systems, materials science and engineering, integrative systems neuroscience, and metabolism bioscience and bioengineering.

Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine in Stony Brook, N.Y., has increased its capacity for ultra-low-temperature freezer storage, a need that became critical nationwide in early 2021 when the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine required that level of storage, limiting which hospitals and pharmacies could offer it. Stony Brook’s new 560,000-sf Medical and Research Translation facility contains a low-temp walk-in (LTW) Freezer Farm suite with eight minus-80-degree-Celsius permanent storage chambers and a minus-20-degree-Celsius storage corridor with a combined capacity of over 1.8 million samples. This is the equivalent storage of 80 traditional point-of-use (POU) stand-alone freezer units.

EMD Serono completed construction in March of 2022 on the $70 million Horizon Building in Billerica, Mass. Designed by PM Group, the 149,000-sf structure provides collaborative research environments to accelerate the creation of specialty pharmaceuticals. The mixed-use R&D facility includes approximately 30,000 sf of flexible wet lab space featuring reconfigurable benches and overhead service panels with plug-and-play connectivity.

HYM Investment Group began construction in March of 2022 on a $280 million biomanufacturing hub in Revere, Mass. Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, the six-story life sciences facility will offer leasable research environments for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies. Complemented by retail and dining amenities, the structure will feature two double-height floors for GMP production and manufacturing activities.

Southern Research will begin construction in mid-2022 on an $84 million biotechnology center in Birmingham, Ala. Providing crucial biocontainment capacity for the study of infectious diseases, the 80,000-sf building will enhance pandemic preparedness efforts with BSL-3 laboratories spanning 7,500 sf. The five-level project will also include structural biology labs, high-throughput screening facilities, and a STEM education center.

The Bakar BioEnginuity Hub (BBH), a newly opened life science incubator in Woo Hon Fai Hall on the University of California Berkeley campus, sets a new standard for adaptive reuse of historically significant buildings. Originally completed in 1970, the 94,000-sf cast-in-place concrete building was designed by famed San Francisco architect Mario Ciampi as the home of the Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive. Considered an iconic example of mid-century brutalist architecture, the building was found to have significant seismic vulnerabilities after a campus-wide assessment was conducted in 1997. Despite installing temporary reinforcement bracing that improved the building’s seismic rating from “very poor” to “poor,” the museum ultimately moved to a new location in 2014, leaving the massive complex vacant until a decision was made in 2018 to transform it into a life science research incubator that also preserved the building’s historic legacy. While the bold adaptive reuse goal was laudable and widely supported, the architectural engineering and mechanical challenges of retrofitting the historic building to support the needs of a modern flexible life sciences lab were unprecedented.