Industry News

Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., has completed its new 225,000-sf mobile decontamination unit. The mass-rinse center can service up to 75 people an hour and is equipped with eight shower heads inside and four outside. The $150,000 facility consists of three suites in which patients remove clothes, shower, and redress in gowns. The decontamination system was designed by Kohler Mobile Plumbing Systems based in Kohler, Wis.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is planning a $25 million, 75,000-sf addition to its existing 245,000-sf headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md.

Kaiser Permanente is planning to construct up to 900,000 sf as it rebuilds its 16-acre campus in Redwood City, Calif. Tripling the medical square footage on the site, the project will include four medical centers, a new hospital, and up to four parking lots. The lead architect is Gordon Chong of San Francisco. Construction may begin on one of the four medical office facilities in early 2004.

KBI BioPharma, a division of Kinetic Biosystems of Atlanta, will upfit 300,000 sf in four buildings recently purchased in Teer Technical Park in Durham. Formerly occupied by Mitsubishi's semiconductor manufacturing operations, the facility currently houses three cleanrooms ranging in size from 6,906 sf to 25,240 sf. The first of the three planned renovation phases is expected to take nine months and cost $45 million. The lead architect is O'Brien/Atkins Associates of Durham.

BioMerieux, a French diagnostic instruments maker, is expanding its U.S. headquarters in Durham's Teer Technical Park with the lease of an additional 20,000 sf. The space will house research in probe instrument technology.