Industry News

West Virginia University has recently completed the Life Sciences Building (LSB), a consolidated facility housing the biology and psychology departments. At 200,000-sf, the LSB is the largest structure on the school's Morgantown campus and is the first facility in the long-range master plan developing the site of the university’s former football stadium and defining a new campus edge.

Oberlin College has completed construction of its new Science Center in Oberlin, Ohio. Replacing the Kettering Science Building built in the 1960s, the new facility is a planned village of appropriately scaled buildings around a unifying “science lawn”. The Science Center houses teaching and research space for biology, chemistry, neuroscience and physics, as well as a new science library, shared lecture halls, and a common area.

San Diego-based Structural GenomiX will lease a 10,000-sf facility for Eli Lilly & Co. as part of a research collaboration announced April 21, 2003. Lilly will install technology in the facility over the course of 12 to 18 months, after which Lilly can opt to transfer the system to its Indianapolis headquarters or staff the existing location. The facility will house 10 to 15 Structural Genomics scientists involved in determining the three-dimensional structure of several proteins that are potential targets for new drugs.

Pfizer has awarded Montbleau and Associates the contract for laboratory furniture and architectural woodwork at seven facilities totaling 500,000 sf in Torrey Pines, Calif. The project architect is Kornberg Associates with DPR Construction as general contractor.

Convergys Corp. is constructing a 170,000-sf call center in Bangalore, India. Housing employee testing areas, training rooms, a language laboratory, and a cafeteria, the facility will accommodate over 3,000 employees when it opens in May of 2003. Convergys, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides outsourced billing, human resources, and customer care services.