Research and Development

The University of Edinburgh broke ground on a £58 million biomedical research center in December of 2008. Located on the University’s Easter Bush campus in Roslin, U.K., the project will house laboratories and offices for research in genetics, developmental biology, neuroscience, immunology, infectious diseases, and animal sciences. The facility is slated for completion in 2011 and will be complemented by a new veterinary teaching building and small animal hospital. The project architect is CUH2A.

The University of California, Berkeley received $10.98 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in November of 2008 to fund the construction of the Center for Integrated Precision and Quantum Measurement (CIPQM). The 10,000-sf underground facility will be located in the planned New Campbell Hall and will provide 10 to 15 modular laboratories for multidisciplinary precision measurement research. Construction on the low-vibration, low-noise, and low-EMI facility is expected to begin in 2010.

Vistec Lithography opened its global headquarters, R&D, and manufacturing facility in Watervliet, N.Y., in late November of 2008. The facility will provide the nanotechnology company with 30,000-sf of research, administrative, and manufacturing space in the Arsenal Business and Technology Campus. The project was designed by M+W Zander and features cleanrooms, production space, and offices.

Trinity College Dublin is planning to build an 11-story biomedical sciences research and training facility in Dublin, Ireland. The €75 million project will include research, academic, and commercial office space. Slated for completion in 2010, the 28,000-sm TCD Biomedical Sciences Development will house the Institute of Immunology, the Cancer Drug Discovery Center of Excellence, the Bioengineering Center, and space for the Institute of Neuroscience.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory opened the $3.3 million Renewable Fuels Heating Plant in November of 2008. Located at the South Table Mountain Campus in Golden, Colo., the project will heat laboratory buildings by smoke-free burning of woody biomass. The Renewable Fuels Heating Plant will offset the emission of 4.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide and the use of 50,000 million BTUs of natural gas annually.

UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography will begin construction in summer of 2010 on the $26.5 million Marine Ecosystem Sensing, Observation and Modeling (MESOM) Laboratory. Located in La Jolla, Calif., the planned three-story, 18,000-asf facility will house laboratories, offices, and conference rooms for multidisciplinary research on physical, biological, and chemical sensors for ocean ecology research. Completion is expected in 2012. A minimum of LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility.

The University of Florida is planning to construct the $2 million Aquatic Pathobiology Laboratory in Gainesville. Funded by $1.267 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the 6,990-sf research facility will include the Aquatic Animal Health Facility, small and large animal necropsy, molecular diagnostics, aquatic animal holding, and water preparation rooms.

DuPont opened the DuPont Knowledge Center in Hyderabad, India, in November of 2008. The $30 million facility houses laboratories for biotechnology, materials research, engineering design, and applications development. The project broke ground in summer of 2007 and can accommodate up to 600 scientists and staff. Housing basic research, bioinformatics, product development, and patent services, the Knowledge Center will support DuPont’s industrial and plant biotechnology operations in the Asia Pacific region.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Vehicles Directorate celebrated the opening of the $3 million Facility for Innovative Research in Structures Technology (FIRST) in November of 2008. Located in Building 65 at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, FIRST will support engineering and research on the structure and thermal envelopes of air vehicles. Laboratory amenities include compressed air, water, argon gas, nitrogen gas, and liquid nitrogen. Construction began on the project in 2007.

Tulane University opened its $27.5 million Regional Biosafety Laboratory at the National Primate Research Center on December 5, 2008. Located in Covington, La., the 38,000-sf BSL-3 facility supports research on infectious diseases and airborne contaminants. The laboratory will house approximately 180 monkeys when research operations begin in summer of 2009.

Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB) and Notre Dame University broke ground on the $20 million Harper Hall in South Bend in November of 2008. The 55,000-sf project will house medical education facilities, offices, and 28 cancer research laboratories for IUSM-SB and the University of Notre Dame. The building will connect on three levels to the existing Raclin-Carmichael Hall, which houses IUSM-SB and Notre Dame’s Keck Center for Transgene Research.

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute broke ground on a $5.2 million research laboratory in Carlsbad, Calif., in November of 2008. The 17,315-sf facility will support geological research and will include a life-sized model of the Lechuguilla Cave crystal chandelier. Completion is expected by January of 2010.

Wacker Polymers America broke ground on its 67,000-sf headquarters in Allentown, Pa., in November of 2008. Supporting the creation of environmentally friendly dispersions, binders, polymer additives, and dispersible powders, the facility will house administrative functions and laboratories for R&D, applications testing, and product development. Occupancy is expected in late summer of 2009. Wacker Polymers America is a subsidiary of Germany-based Wacker Chemie AG.

The Marine Biological Laboratory will begin construction in March of 2009 on a $25 million renovation of the three-story Loeb Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Designed by Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, the project will create research space for regenerative biology and medicine. The general contractor is Shawmut Construction. Completion is slated for June of 2010.

The University of Oxford opened its £20 million Biomedical Sciences Building in the United Kingdom in November of 2008. Construction began on the animal research laboratory in 2003. Full research operations will commence in mid-2009. The facility primarily houses mice; 98 percent of the animals in the building are rodents with a small amount of fish, frogs, ferrets, and nonhuman primates.