Rohm and Haas, based in Philadelphia, plans to consolidate its chemical operations in Lower Gwynedd, where the company currently has a 600,000-sf lab. After closing its facility in Bristol Township, Rohm and Haas will invest $20- to $25 million to relocate 175 Bristol employees to Lower Gwynedd and construct a second building at that 140-acre site.
AstraZeneca R&D Boston will soon be adding 80,000 sf to its 170,000-sf office and infectious disease research facility in Boston. The company currently employs 250 at the site; the expansion will accommodate up to 420 over the next few years.
The Food and Drug Administration’s new 350,000-sf Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition opened in October. The $62.5-million life sciences and chemistry lab facility consolidates three offices from the D.C. area, and accommodates approximately 950 employees. Planning and construction of the building took four years. The general contractor for the project is Tomkins.
Western Michigan University is building a 50,000-sf Paper Technology Pilot Plant at its new Business-Technology-Research Park. Scheduled for completion in December 2001, it will be the first in a series of new buildings that will comprise the new College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Complex. Architect for the pilot plant is HarleyEllis, with design consultant Rosetti Architects of Birmingham, Mich.
Underwriters Laboratories Inc. has opened a telecommunications equipment testing facility in Research Triangle Park. The 4,500-sf network equipment building system features an earthquake simulator providing tremors up to 7.0 on the Richter scale that shakes equipment on a hydraulic table. The facility also houses an altitude simulator (up to 20,000 ft) and temperature extremes ranging from 40 to 180 degrees Celsius.
Abgenix has acquired 72,000-sf of research and development space adjacent to its headquarters in Ardenwood Corporate Park in Fremont. This expansion of Abgenix's R&D space will provide facilities for developing antibody therapeutic products.
The La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology contracted Bilbro Construction Co. for remodeling and tenant improvement of 1,500 sf in an occupied biomedical lab facility. The $250,000 project was designed by Architects Delawie Wilkes Rodriguez Barker and engineered by TKG Consulting Engineers.
Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. is building a 185,000-sf headquarters and state-of-the-art laboratory and research facility in an MIT-owned building in Cambridge. The $65 million project, developed by Barr & Barr Inc., involves renovating the existing building, including restoration of the historical building's 150-year-old facade.
The Cancer Therapy and Research Center has completed a 20,000-sf expansion of its Institute for Drug Development. Consolidating basic and translational research labs, the facility will focus on developing new cancer treatment therapies. The expansion is funded by a $35 million capital campaign that will also endow the IDD senior scientific chairs.
Bethesda-based Coagulation Diagnostics Inc. moved into a new lab facility at the Maryland Technology Development Center in Rockville on May 1. The biotech firm, maker of commercialized diagnostic tests for cardiovascular disease, will retain its Bethesda office space while expanding its R&D operations.
Sandia/California National Laboratories plans to begin construction on the Distributed Information Systems Laboratory in April 2002. The $35.5-million, 70,400-sf R&D facility will house 130 scientists from a variety of fields collaborating on improving nuclear weapons monitoring and testing, which is carried out by computer simulations. Dekker/Perich/Sabatini of Albuquerque, N.M., was awarded the $1,562,000 design contract for the project.
PharmaNet is tripling the size of its operations in Cary, North Carolina. The Princeton, N.J.-based contract research organization provides the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with a comprehensive range of drug development and consulting services. Slated for September, the expansion of the Cary office will increase square footage from 6,600 to 19,000 and consolidate space on two floors of the Weston One to a larger facility on a single floor.
The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is planning to develop a 1,000-acre site as a satellite campus. The mixed-use development will contain commercial, research and institutional space as well as housing for faculty, staff, and students. Accommodating 25,000 employees and housing up to 3,000, the project will feature additional facilities for research in genomics and bioinformatics.
Washington University is planning to develop its Hilltop campus and School of Medicine with new buildings for education, research and patient care. The $1 billion project includes a $35 million biomedical engineering facility, the Uncas A. Whitaker Hall.
The U.S. Army has granted $2.5 million to an Emory University scientist to for a new prostate cancer research center. Funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command's Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), the new facility will study the causes and behavior of prostate cancer in the body.
