Industry News

Texas A&M University opened the Soltis Center for Research and Education in San Isidro, Costa Rica in early 2009. Sited on 40 acres adjacent to 250 acres of rainforest, the facility provides classrooms, dormitories, and support spaces for environmental science teaching and research. The Soltis Center will officially be dedicated in June of 2009.

Temple University’s Fox School of Business opened the $80 million Alter Hall in Philadelphia in January of 2009. The seven-story, 217,000-sf facility features Mediasite lecture capture technologies to support multimedia webcasting. Designed by architect Michael Graves, Alter Hall houses 30 technology-rich classrooms and tiered case study rooms.

Presbyterian Healthcare is building a $100 million hospital in Mint Hill, N.C. Construction began on the 50-bed project in summer of 2008 with completion expected in fall of 2010. The facility will include an emergency department with 16 treatment rooms, 38 acute care medical surgical beds, 10 observation beds, four ICU beds, a laboratory, and an imaging center. The project will feature four surgical operating rooms with nine first-stage recovery bays and 22 admission, preparation, and second stage recovery rooms.

Royal DSM N.V. opened the DSM China regional headquarters and R&D campus in January of 2009. The 26,000-sm facility is located in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai and has attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification. Royal DSM N.V., a life and materials sciences company based in the Heerlen, Netherlands, will house 600 employees in the new facility.

Memphis VA Medical Center initiated a $6 million renovation of its animal research facility in December of 2008. The 38,000-sf project includes the 14,000-sf Veterinary Medical Unit (VMU) and 24,000 sf of basic research space. The renovation will add 10,000 sf to the VMU and will increase laboratory and animal housing space for research on mice, rats, and rabbits. The project is slated for completion in mid-2010.