Industry News

The University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine opened its $63-million Animal Health Research Center in early summer of 2006. Dedicated to the study of the treatment and prevention of emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin, the three-story, 75,00-sf BSL-3AG facility accommodates biocontainment spaces for the study of agents requiring BSL-1 to BSL-3 facilities.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) will begin construction in summer of 2009 on a $132-million arts and humanities facility. Funded by the state, the 220,000-sf building will include a 425-seat concert hall, a 300-seat theater and a smaller theater, a recital hall, a dance studio, and classrooms. The facility will be sited on a hillside adjacent to the existing fine arts building and will house UMBC's English, ancient studies, music, dance, and philosophy departments.

Providence Newberg Medical Center has constructed the first LEED® Gold certified hospital in the United States. Built by Skanska USA Building, the $70 million Newberg, Ore., facility will have repaid its initial "green" investment cost in 14 months, and in just over a year, the hospital will save nearly 26 percent in annual energy expenses.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG will break ground in July 2006 on a $100-million expansion of its manufacturing facility in East Walpole, Mass. The facility, occupied by Bayer's medical diagnostics division, produces reagents used in diagnostic tests for cancer and heart disease. The 400,000-sf building will be expanded by 116,000 sf of additional manufacturing, warehouse, and storage space. Completion is expected by year-end 2008.

Utah State University is constructing the $13-million David G. Sant Engineering Innovation Building on its Logan campus. The three-story, 34,000-sf facility is 135 feet long by 84 feet wide and will house laboratories of various sizes with modular, flexible bays.