Industry News

Toppan Optical Products has opened a new $40 million, 94,000-sf plant in Poway, Calif. The facility accommodates production manufacturing using computerized controls in a cleanroom environment.

Poway Unified School District has selected Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc. to build the $23 million Oak Valley Middle School. Designed by NTD Architects of San Diego, the 106,000-sf school will be comprised of five classroom buildings, administrative offices, a gymnasium, a multipurpose room, and outdoor sport facilities. Construction will begin in January 2004 and reach completion in May of 2005.

Biocom, a San Diego life sciences group, will work with educational and corporate organizations to create the San Diego Multiuse Biotechnology Training Center. The planned facility will train San Diego's future biotech workforce and will be funded by government grants and public-private partnerships.  

The University of Texas is planning its new $22-million Department of Biomedical Engineering facility on its main Austin campus. The four-story, 80,000-sf facility will provide classroom and research space for three areas of biomedical engineering: imaging, computing, and molecular and cellular bioengineering. Office and classroom space will occupy 40,000 sf;  laboratories will occupy the remaining 40,000-sf. The research facilities will house dry labs for computer and instrumentation studies as well as wet lab space. Occupancy is expected in 2005.

Stanford University Medical School is planning to create the Biotech Research Center for Children's Health with $700,000 in funding received from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.