The Facilities are Part of a $460-million Modernization Effort
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) operates a 480-acre campus in Ames, Iowa, that houses approximately 800 employees from two USDA agencies: the Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Together, they comprise the National Centers for Animal Health.

Common Sense Solutions Allow Nine-Month Turnaround in Two-Story Renovation
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was planning to consolidate much of its imaging equipment in a single lab when a prime piece of real estate became available, a rare occurrence in Cambridge, Mass. Administrators leapt at the chance to lease it, leaving scientists and architects to meet for their first planning session on the day the building was gutted. Nine months later, in September 2004, they moved into building NE47, carrying on an MIT tradition of numbering rather than naming its buildings.

Leading-Edge Management Model Provides Analysis for Facilities Management
The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model developed by the facilities management arm of Intel Corp. is making it easier to accurately plan capital projects and to predict operating costs.

Commissioning and Validation of High Requirement Containment Facilities
Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI), a private biomedical research organization in Albuquerque, N.M., recently opened an advanced 9,500-sf ABSL-3 aerobiology laboratory after an intensive commissioning and validation process. The facility is used to study aerosolized pathogens on the CDC's Select Agent List and for vaccine efficacy testing. Built on a strict 17-month timeline, the facility is subject to exacting regulatory requirements. To ensure that the facility would operate as expected and meet all safety requirements, the organization applied an intensive inspection and testing process dubbed, "CVQx" (commissioning, validation, and qualification).

Avoiding Common Deficiencies in Biocontainment Containment Labs
World BioHazTec Inc. (WBHT) recently reviewed 22 commissioned biocontainment labs in the United States and southeast Asia, and found that none were in full compliance with international regulatory or industry standards. WBHT, a world leader in certifying biosafety laboratories, reviewed the design and operating procedures of 17 new and five existing facilities, and found some level of deficiency in all of them. Some of these lapses were the result of procedures, and some were due to insufficient construction methods, surface finishes, design elements, and inappropriate value engineering decisions.

Task Force Shepherds Through $1.2 Billion in Projects Since 2000
The development of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) campus since its move to Cambridge in 1916 has been dominated by two trends: waves of new construction approximately once every generation, and slow, steady evolution as a residential campus. These bursts of activity are essential to MIT's building cycle and its new initiatives, says Deborah Poodry, director of campus planning and design, and director of capital project development for MIT.

The first major project to be completed during MIT's latest building cycle was the Ray and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information, and Intelligent Sciences. Designed by Frank Gehry and occupied in March 2004, the 720,000-sf structure houses the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Washington State University
The Plant Biosciences Building is the first facility to be completed for the new Research and Education Complex being developed on Washington State University's main campus in Pullman, Wash. As the cornerstone project and entry for the new development, the building houses state-of-the-art research and teaching labs for molecular and biological plant sciences. The ultimate vision for the complex is to create an interdisciplinary group of research buildings that foster cutting edge research and learning environments.

Keene State College
Once an aging, generic brick building constructed in the 1960s and meant primarily for lectures, the Keene State College Science Center has been transformed into a bright and vibrant center for modern science, complete with distance-learning technology, state-of-the-art labs, and some of the most high-tech equipment in New England. Composed of a 55,700-sf renovation to the College's existing science facility and a 37,940-sf new glass-walled addition, the new Science Center effectively addresses the challenges that older academic buildings often present. By working within the existing structure, the college saved time and more than $5.5 million in construction costs.

William Rainey Harper College
Deriving its name from the Latin word meaning "moving forward," the new Avanté Center at William Rainey Harper College creates an inspiring educational center for allied health science and technology learning. The state-of-the-art, 282,000-sf facility has a separate wing for each of the school's three disciplines -- science, emerging technologies, and health careers -- connected by a 600-ft long glass concourse.