Animal Research

Iowa State University opened the first phase of the new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in March of 2024. Located on the College of Veterinary Medicine campus in Ames, the 90,000-sf building houses essential infrastructure for sample receiving, pathology, bacteriology, necropsy, and histopathology. Strang provided integrated design services for the $75 million project, which leverages effective and efficient process flows to support an extremely high volume of testing.

The use of animals in biomedical research, already a decades-long ethically charged issue, has come under fire in more recent years for both a lack of scientific rigor and its huge financial appetite. Concerns about waste in basic research—in animal lives, scientist time, and research costs—are mounting, particularly when investigators are unable to confirm the data and achieve the same results when replicating original experiments (either theirs or others’). The solution? Track the effects of extrinsic environmental factors that can impact an animal's behavior, health, and reproduction: temperature, humidity, light, noise, and vibration.

The University of Kentucky broke ground in March of 2024 on the $60 million Martin-Gatton Agricultural Sciences Building in Lexington. Designed by BHDP Architecture, the 66,000-sf facility will offer technology-enabled learning environments for the education of tomorrow’s agricultural leaders. The ground floor will feature 15 large, flexible classrooms that can easily adapt to different pedagogical modes, complemented by an adjacent café where students can gather and interact.

Cal Poly will begin construction in April of 2024 on the Charles and Claire Jacobsen Animal Health Center in San Luis Obispo. Designed by Gensler, the $30 million project will address a growing demand for courses in veterinary medicine and animal agriculture. Clinical environments will be collocated with academic functions to allow students to engage in experiential learning and training. Providing 17,500 sf of program space, the state-of-the-art building will offer wet labs, examination and procedure rooms, a surgical suite, and a necropsy facility.

Increasing demand for BSL-3 and ABSL-3 lab space in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving up interest in renovating existing research facilities to accommodate these high-containment spaces. Even a small BSL-3 lab can be a costly undertaking, with special attention required for security of both personnel and biohazards, location in the building, and waste disposal, as well as the design and commissioning of exhaust system.

The University of California, Irvine is constructing the $250 million Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building to accelerate the discovery of new modalities for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Designed by LMN Architects, the 215,000-sf structure will provide advanced wet labs where teams of investigators will engage in cross-disciplinary research. Featuring integrated collaboration venues and support spaces, the project will also include offices, meeting rooms, and a vivarium.

The Ohio State University broke ground in January of 2024 on the $52 million Multispecies Animal Learning Center in Columbus. Designed by Wellogy, the 100,000-sf facility will provide the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences with a dynamic hub for training and research. State-of-the-art classrooms and demonstration areas will support a progressive pedagogy of experiential education, augmented by a series of interconnecting barns with specialized housing for swine, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and poultry.

Tulane University opened the Steven and Jann Paul Hall for Science and Engineering in January of 2024 in New Orleans. Designed by Payette and Waggonner & Ball, the 76,000-sf building offers flexible research venues, sophisticated classrooms, and common spaces for increased student and faculty interaction.

Washington University in St. Louis opened the $616 million Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building in January of 2024. Designed by Perkins&Will and CannonDesign, the 608,825-sf facility provides interactive lab neighborhoods where up to 120 teams can engage in collaborative discovery. An 11-story, 584,050-sf research tower is capable of accommodating up to 1,000 investigators from the departments of neurology, neuroscience, neurosurgery, psychiatry, and anesthesiology.

The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), is becoming Canada’s Centre for Pandemic Research, preparing Canada for emerging health threats by expanding its expertise and infrastructure. This includes opening a new Vaccine Development Centre (VDC) to manufacture vaccines; constructing a new multispecies animal housing facility; enhancing its biosafety containment to the highest level to facilitate research on the most complex pathogens; and using its nearly five decades of success to attract top scientists. 

Brown University is planning to construct the 300,000-sf Integrated Life Sciences Building (ILSB) in Providence’s Jewelry District. Designed by TenBerke and Ballinger, the seven-story facility will provide six levels of wet and dry laboratories for research programs in biology, medicine, neuroscience, bioengineering, and public health. A publicly accessible ground floor will offer a forum, a gallery, and a café, with a pedestrian thoroughfare for enhanced access to nearby buildings.

Louisiana State University Health Shreveport celebrated the completion of the $79 million Center for Medical Education in December of 2023. Designed by Perkins&Will and Coleman Partners Architects, the four-story, 155,000-sf facility features a 500-seat auditorium-in-the-round, three 250-seat active learning classrooms, and 27 flexible instructional venues. Simulation suites and clinical skills labs leverage immersive technologies to enhance experiential education and training.

The University of South Alabama broke ground in December of 2023 on a dynamic new home for the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine in Mobile. Designed by Perkins&Will and Eskew Dumez Ripple, the $200 million facility will address a nationwide shortage of physicians by enabling the first-year class size to increase from 80 to 100, with the capability to accommodate 125 students in the future.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened a 145,000-sf expansion of the School of Veterinary Medicine in November of 2023. Designed by Flad Architects and Foil Wyatt Architects & Planners, the three-story addition connects to the original building at each level, doubling the size of the small animal hospital and tripling the space dedicated to infectious disease research. Laboratories for basic discovery are complemented by ABSL-3, BSL-3, and BSL-2 environments for working with influenza, SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, and more.

The University of Georgia dedicated the $54.1 million Poultry Science Building in Athens in October of 2023. Designed by Flad Architects, the 70,000-sf structure provides leading-edge facilities for programs in avian biology, genetics, nutrition, and product safety. The transformative development provides the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences with state-of-the-art classrooms, teaching labs, BSL-2 research labs, demonstration areas, conference rooms, and offices for faculty and staff.