Industry News

Tacoma General Hospital opened its $22.1 million cardiac center in November of 2008 in Tacoma, Wash. The 37,240-sf facility provides consolidated cardiac care with prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in a single location. Housing an intensive care unit, imaging, stress testing, and surgery, the comprehensive heart center features all private rooms.

Construction will begin in spring of 2010 on a 67,000-sf outpatient facility at Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla, Wash. The new building is part of a $71.4 million upgrade that will include renovation of the existing 47,000-sf hospital and construction of a $9 million, 22,000-sf substance abuse rehabilitation facility. Completion is expected in 2011.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Vehicles Directorate celebrated the opening of the $3 million Facility for Innovative Research in Structures Technology (FIRST) in November of 2008. Located in Building 65 at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, FIRST will support engineering and research on the structure and thermal envelopes of air vehicles. Laboratory amenities include compressed air, water, argon gas, nitrogen gas, and liquid nitrogen. Construction began on the project in 2007.

Siemens Healthcare completed an 115,000-sf expansion of its Diagnostic Reagent Facility in East Walpole, Mass., in November of 2008. Comprised of manufacturing and warehouse facilities, the project was finished by Columbia Construction three months ahead of schedule. The sustainably-designed expansion features an energy-efficient roof, light sensors, high-efficiency equipment motors, and a water recharge system.

Tulane University opened its $27.5 million Regional Biosafety Laboratory at the National Primate Research Center on December 5, 2008. Located in Covington, La., the 38,000-sf BSL-3 facility supports research on infectious diseases and airborne contaminants. The laboratory will house approximately 180 monkeys when research operations begin in summer of 2009.