Research and Development

ApiJect will break ground in December of 2020 on the Gigafactory campus in Durham, N.C. Strategically sited in Research Triangle Park, the complex will be the world’s largest pharmaceutical fill-finish facility, offering an annual production capacity of three billion single-dose prefilled injectors. Funded by a federal loan of $590 million, the one million-sf project will provide BSL-2 manufacturing areas, cold and ultra-cold storage infrastructure, and an onsite needle and cannula factory.

Washington State University opened the $66 million Plant Sciences Building in Pullman in November of 2020. Designed by LMN Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 82,476-sf facility provides leading-edge research environments for programs in horticulture, plant biochemistry and pathology, and crop and soil science. Creating a new gateway to the V.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has attained the world's first WELL Health-Safety Rating for laboratory space at Alexandria LaunchLabs in New York City. Augmenting the center’s existing WELL certification for building design, the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facilities Operations and Management includes further measures to protect the health of tenants, employees, visitors, and service personnel. Protocols at Alexandria LaunchLabs include:

The University of California, Irvine began construction on a $134 million health sciences complex in October of 2020. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative and HED, the project will enhance synergies between the disciplines of medicine, nursing, population health, and pharmacy to deliver a dynamic pedagogy of team-based care. Supporting an innovative curriculum based on integrative health, the complex is expected to be a national model for the future of interprofessional education.

Iowa State University broke ground in October of 2020 on the $75 million Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) in Ames. Located on the campus of the College of Veterinary Medicine, the 72,540-sf structure will provide leading-edge labs and testing suites to enable the prevention, detection, and mitigation of animal diseases including avian influenza, African Swine Fever, and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.

Carleton University began construction in November of 2020 on the CAD$16 million Engineering Design Centre in Ottawa. Enabling undergraduate students to engage in hands-on, experiential learning, the collaborative 25,000-sf facility will provide design studios, workshops bays, instructional venues, meeting rooms, and formal and informal interaction areas. A maker space on the ground floor will accommodate sophisticated equipment including 3D printers, injection molders, and laser and water jet cutters.

The unprecedented health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving many institutions to increase investment in new biocontainment facilities or rapidly pivot to upgrade and repurpose existing containment spaces in an urgent attempt to respond to the crisis. Hundreds of organizations nationwide began applying for grants after the National Institutes for Health (NIH) received $3.6 billion in funding dedicated to COVID-19 research as part of an emergency stimulus bill passed earlier this year. The NIH now has until 2024 to release the funds. Additionally, private donors, non-governmental organizations, and other entities worldwide are providing billions in funding for development of testing and vaccine programs. This surge of financing is expected to fuel a growth in the creation of new biocontainment spaces in the near future and long term. Since designing, building, and commissioning new biocontainment labs is an expensive and time-consuming process, some institutions are electing to upgrade existing BSL-2 facilities to make them BSL-3, while others are choosing to move existing research programs to make room for new pandemic-related initiatives.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened the $57.1 million Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery Building in November of 2020. Designed by Potter Lawson, the 67,540-gsf facility provides the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with leading-edge environments for research, teaching, and outreach. The two-story structure houses two technology-rich lecture halls, a shared research lab, an expansive atrium, demonstration areas, conference rooms, faculty offices, and a retail meat store.

The University of Massachusetts Medical School is planning to construct the $325 million New Education and Research Building in Worcester. Accommodating 77 principal investigators, the nine-story, 350,000-sf facility will include space for animal research as well as housing an FDA-compliant manufacturing center for clinical trial therapeutics. The project will enable UMass to increase its class sizes help meet the needs of the commonwealth and the nation for physicians, graduate nurses, life sciences researchers, and other health sciences professionals.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) began construction in October of 2020 on the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Inchinnan in the United Kingdom. Created in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, GSK, and AstraZeneca, the £42 million facility will enable the development of new pharmaceutical production methods that will be proven at scale in a GMP environment.

Lincoln Property Company is creating a mixed-use campus in Lexington, Mass. Designed by DiMella Shaffer, the development will include a laboratory building providing 95,000 sf of Class A research space linked by a central promenade to a 125,000-sf office facility. Strategically sited in the burgeoning life sciences district along the Route 128 corridor, the complex will include a community hub with a café to encourage interaction and collaboration between tenants, as well as a 502-space parking garage.

Florida Institute of Technology broke ground in October of 2020 on the $18 million Health Sciences Research Center in Melbourne, Fla. Enabling the university to expand its biomedical engineering and premedical programs, the 61,000-sf facility will feature a sophisticated anatomy lab with virtual dissection tables, an imaging suite with florescent and laser scanning microscopes, and labs for orthopedic research, tissue engineering, and computer modeling and simulation.

The University of Texas at El Paso opened the $93.5 million Interdisciplinary Research Building in September of 2020. Designed by Perkins+Will, the 156,000-sf project provides collaborative research labs, a vivarium, imaging suites, core labs, a visualization suite, conference rooms, an atrium, an auditorium, and academic and administrative offices. Housing teams from multiple departments, the flexible facility can be easily adapted to accommodate changing program requirements.

Merck is constructing a $69 million facility for the production of high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) compounds. Representing an expansion of the company's existing campus near Madison, the 70,000-sf structure will feature containment environments specifically designed for the manufacture of substances with single-digit nanogram occupational exposure limits. The building will allow the large-scale production of increasingly potent compounds for the creation of innovative cancer therapeutics.

Facility Logix, EwingCole, and Biggins Lacy Shapiro have launched Rapid Reshore & Development (RR&D) to provide turnkey professional services to the life sciences and biopharmaceutical industries. Addressing many of the logistical challenges faced by companies developing drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, the alliance represents an evolution from transaction-driven service models to a holistic focus on client needs.