Industry News

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) expects to open the $850-million Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in late summer or early fall of 2007. Replacing the existing medical center, the facility will house Women's Services, Diagnosis, and Treatment, Resnick Neuropsychiatric, and Mattel Children's Hospitals.

Utica College in New York broke ground on the F. Eugene Romano Hall in spring of 2006. The building, slated for completion in summer of 2007, is the first phase of a planned $7-million, 23,000-sf health science and technology complex that will reach completion in approximately five years. The complex will house classrooms, laboratories, and clinical space for studies in physical and occupational therapy, health studies, nursing, psychology, and therapeutic recreation.

The Department of Homeland Security broke ground on the $128-million National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) in Frederick, Md., on June 26, 2006.

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Sasaki Associates of Boston have created a $6.7-billion, 30-year expansion plan in Philadelphia. To be constructed with several third-party developers, the master plan includes medical, office, educational, housing, retail, and research space. UPenn is working with Atlanta-based University Partners on a $50-million multifamily housing facility to include 150 units and 40,000 sf of ground-floor retail. UPenn will develop other multifamily housing rentals nearby.

Duke University's $115-million French Science Center is slated for completion in December 2006. Named for donor Melinda French Gates, the facility bring various arts and sciences under one roof with teaching and research laboratories for biological chemistry, genomics, materials science, physical biology, nanoscience, and bioinformatics. The facility will also house the departments of biology, chemistry, anatomy, anthropology, physics, mathematics, and six research greenhouses.