Lab-Free Science Building Serves both Physicists and the Community
Theoretical physics is not the typical science, so Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is not the typical science building. There are no labs, wet or dry, no high-tech gadgetry, or sensitive environmental controls. The most powerful tool a scientist can use is his mind to contemplate and calculate new ideas about the very essence of space, time, and matter.

Lab Will Serve as Global Model for Real-time Surveillance Methods
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health is in the programming stages for a new high-speed, high-volume laboratory network capable of quickly analyzing and processing high quantities of biological samples. The network will expedite widespread collection and testing of influenza samples and will enable public health experts to track diseases in near real time, dramatically shortening the time needed to produce effective vaccines.

Overcoming Challenges of Housing Multiple Species in a Single Barrier Facility
The University of Western Ontario (UWO) is overcoming the challenges typically associated with housing multiple species in the same research facility. The University's new Modular Animal Care Facility (MACF) consists of four distinct modules to house pigs, primates, pregnant sheep, and mice.

Environment Shields Magnets and Users
As imaging technology becomes useful in everything from medicine to marketing, the demand for high-powered, super-conducting magnets is growing, necessitating a greater understanding of the specialized facilities they require. This is particularly true in facilities with more than one magnet.

All of the cages in the species modules at the University of Western Ontario's Modular Animal Care Facility (MACF) are mobile with no built-in units. Storage is available for extra cages as needed in the future to house more animals. The service corridor is wide enough to accommodate the movement of cages throughout the facility. The design also includes doorways with adequate height to transport cages.

No End in Sight to Escalating Construction Costs
"High cost escalation has been a part of the construction industry for a number of years in Western Canada and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Anyone involved in the construction of a new building should accept higher construction costs as a given and plan accordingly, rather than pointing to rising costs as an excuse to explain project failings." Such is the prediction and advice given by Michael Kennedy, principal for the Vancouver office of Stantec Consulting Ltd.

Good Spending Decisions Yield More Building for Less Money
Regardless of budget parameters--tight and rigid or open-ended and flexible--getting the best value possible in a new science building is almost always a concern. But cutting costs doesn't have to mean cutting corners. Instead, institutions, corporations, and medical facilities can construct highly-functional buildings for less by taking a creative approach to the processes and decisions that go into their building projects.