Howard Taylor Ricketts Regional Biocontainment Laboratory

The new, high-containment HTRL, completed in April 2008, is located on the 1500-acre Argonne National Laboratory site in DuPage County, Ill., approximately 25 miles southwest of the University of Chicago’s downtown campus. It is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers.

The 48,647-sf facility includes two BSL-2 laboratories, four BSL-3 laboratories, seven ABSL-3 animal suites, an aerosol procedure room, and administrative space. The facility houses approximately 30 full-time staff members, with capacity to accommodate approximately 30 ventilated cage racks containing approximately 4,000 animal holding cages.

Although small labs already existed at the University and at Argonne for studying infection microbes, the new HTRL will enable researchers to simultaneously study four or more different pathogens. The HTRL will also be prepared to assist national, state, and local public health offices by providing expertise, diagnosis, support, and advice in the event of a bioterrorism or infectious disease emergency.

The University plans to outsource facility operations and ongoing maintenance of the RBL to an outside vendor. Safety features include redundant mechanical systems, controlled airflow, HEPA-filtered exhaust, tightly controlled building access, and isolation/disinfection of specific areas.

Project Information

Building Owner:

University of Chicago

Building Location:

DuPage County, Illinois UNITED STATES

Project Type:

New Construction

Principal Building Function:

Research

Project Timeline

Jul 2006	Construction Start
Apr 2008	Completion
Last known status: Completed

Construction Cost:

$35,000,000

About These Cost Figures

Building Information

Project Includes:

Biocontainment
Laboratory
Research

Total GSF:

54,100

Project Team

Architect

Flad Architects

Engineer

Affiliated Engineers Inc. (AEI)

General Contractor

Turner Construction

Profile Created 07/18/2007

Last Updated 06/04/2008

About the Reported Cost Figures

The cost figures reported are supplied by the firms that submitted these projects for publication, which in most cases are the designers or builders. Whereas these sources are intimately familiar with their projects, they may not be fully aware of the owners' finally-realized and recorded costs. In some cases, costs are truly and completely accounted for, and in others they represent a near approximation of the final costs. Costs have not been adjusted for year of construction, nor has any attempt been made to make regional cost adjustments.

Further, costs are not comparable on any kind of detailed standard costing model. Hence, it is possible for the cost of one building to include a steam boiler, while the cost of a comparable building might not include the boiler, if steam is being supplied from an already existing campus grid. Or, in another case, a building might include excess boiler capacity to supply steam to another building. Some submittals include fees or unusual site improvements as part of the construction costs, which others do not.

Fig. 1

Argonne National Lab