Research and Development

BMW Group opened the FIZ Projekthaus Nord complex in Munich in September of 2020. Representing an expansion of the company's existing R&D campus, the collaborative facility provides 1.6 billion square feet of space for engineering, research, collaboration, and administration. Comprising two office structures and a test-bench building, the integrated complex offers a dynamically connected work environment enabled by 20,000 servers and a data storage capacity of 90 petabytes.

Construction began in October of 2020 on the $44.2 million Discovery Square 2 building in Rochester, Minn. Designed by RSP Architects, the 125,000-sf facility will offer leasable research environments for life science companies. Sited in the Destination Medical Center district, the five-story structure will feature advanced laboratory infrastructure, centralized common spaces, and a physical connection to the adjacent One Discovery Square building.

Wayne State University opened the 100,000-sf STEM Innovation Learning Center in Detroit in October of 2020. Designed as a campus hub for project-based learning and discovery, the interdisciplinary facility features flexible classrooms, wet and dry teaching labs, maker and hacker spaces, a 3D printing lab, and a student commons. Small groups can meet and interact in collaboration zones with integrated whiteboards and projection screens.

California State University, Dominguez Hills completed construction in September of 2020 on the $71.5 million Science & Innovation Building in Carson. Designed by HGA Architects and Engineers with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 87,000-sf facility provides classrooms, labs, and faculty offices to support programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Merck KGaA opened the $58.5 million Centre for Electronic Applications in September of 2020. Located on the company's headquarters campus in Darmstadt, Germany, the 118,400-sf facility will accelerate the discovery and development of next-generation materials for semiconductors and displays. Providing collaborative lab and office environments for 140 employees, the structure features a sophisticated building façade with dynamic liquid crystal windows that can be easily adjusted to minimize glare and heat gain. Construction began on the project in summer of 2017.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania broke ground in September of 2020 on the $90 million Kopchick Hall in Indiana, Pa. Designed by PWWG Architects, the highly flexible facility will provide the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics with 16 reconfigurable teaching labs, 43 research lab modules, three classrooms, and two multifunctional computer labs.

The University of Washington and Gonzaga University broke ground in September of 2020 on a $60 million medical education hub in Spokane. Supporting the Regional Health Partnership initiative, the 90,000-sf facility will offer classrooms, interactive learning environments, research labs, an anatomy suite, and administrative offices. McKinstry, the developer of the public-private project, will own and manage the building, which will provide leased space for the UW School of Medicine and Gonzaga's programs in human physiology and nursing.

Johnson Controls opened the $37 million OpenBlue Innovation Center at the National University of Singapore in September of 2020. Located in the School of Design and Environment's SDE4 building, the 2,600-sf facility is a living laboratory for the development of customizable, contact-free applications built on Johnson Controls' unifying digital technology suite, OpenBlue.

The Ohio State University is planning to construct a $1.79 billion inpatient hospital at Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Providing 820 beds in private rooms, the 1.9 million-sf complex will integrate exceptional patient care environments with leading-edge facilities for research, medical education, and clinical training. Designed by HDR, the hospital will include an emergency department, surgical suites, an imaging center, a neonatal intensive care unit, and a 1,900-space parking garage.

The University of Tennessee at Martin broke ground on the $65 million Latimer Engineering and Science Building in September of 2020. Designed to foster cross-disciplinary innovation and discovery, the 120,000-sf STEM facility will offer teaching labs, student research labs, and classrooms for the departments of mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, chemistry, and physics. The three-story structure will also include an entrepreneurship hub and collaborative project areas. Occupancy is expected in fall of 2022.

Avista Development and McKinstry opened the $40 million Catalyst Building in Spokane in September of 2020. Designed by Michael Green Architecture, the five-story, 159,000-sf facility was built by Katerra using cross-laminated timber (CLT) structural components. Certified by the International Living Future Institute, the zero-carbon, net-zero building features a highly efficient heating and cooling system, a sophisticated building envelope, LED lighting, and integrated energy management technologies.

Kajima Corporation, one of Japan's largest construction companies, broke ground in August of 2020 on the $100 million Global Hub in Singapore. Designed to accelerate the creation of new building technologies, the 141,000-sf innovation center will feature a comprehensive robotic solutions suite. The Kajima Technical Research Institute Singapore (KaTris) will be located in the facility, which will leverage advanced automation and digitalization systems to optimize energy performance and reduce carbon emissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for the research community to respond quickly to changing markets and to understand the value of laboratory spaces that are flexible, adaptable, and scalable. We’ve seen stadiums converted to makeshift hospitals, “drive-through” testing sites pop up in vacant parking lots, and testing laboratories continually ramp up production to expedite results. This quick-thinking behavior has been inspiring to witness but daunting to execute. Laboratories, by nature, are among the most complex building typologies, where the utmost importance is protecting both the health and safety of their occupants and the integrity of the research. The complexities of the resulting design can be challenging to undertake, but when faced with the extreme circumstances of a pandemic, it is possible to expedite the process with a combination of strategies.

King Street Properties has fully leased a 214,440-sf research facility in Lexington, Mass., to four pharmaceutical companies. Designed by R E Dinneen Architects & Planners, the four-story building will offer leading-edge lab and office environments for biomedical research. JLL is the leasing agent for the development, which has yet to open. Tenants include:

The Bolivian National Service of Agricultural Health and Food Safety is planning to build a 201,076-sf research campus in Santa Cruz. Strengthening the country’s research and diagnosis capacity for veterinary, phytosanitary, and food safety challenges, the state-of-the-art complex will provide four laboratory buildings for animal health, plant health, food safety, and fruit fly research, as well as an administrative center.