Industry News

The international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released three new reports on the safety of engineered nanomaterials.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center opened its $25 million Regional Biocontainment Laboratory in Memphis in August of 2009. Designed by The Horrell Group and built by Inman Construction, the 31,000-sf BSL-3 facility is located in the UT-Baptist Research Park. Construction will begin on a 30,000-sf vivarium laboratory at the site in 2010.

Bridgepoint Health will break ground in early fall of 2009 on a 680,000-sf replacement hospital in Toronto. The ten-story, 472-bed facility will be built to attain LEED sustainable design certification. The project team includes Plenary Health, Innisfree, HDR/Diamond Schmitt Architects, PCL Constructors, and Johnson Controls. Occupancy is expected in spring of 2013.

FedEx is partnering with BP Solar to construct the largest rooftop solar array in the United States. Slated for completion in November of 2009, the 2.42 megawatt system will cover 3.3 acres atop a distribution facility in Woodbridge, N.Y. The project will reduce annual CO2 emissions by 1,867 metric tons and will provide 30 percent of the energy consumed by the facility.

The University of Waterloo broke ground on the $9 million Summit Centre for the Environment in Huntsville, Ontario, in August of 2009. The 30,000-sf research facility will support environmental science and ecology with laboratories, classrooms, seminar rooms, and dormitories. Completion is expected by fall of 2010.