Industry News

Richmond, Va.-based Universal Leaf Tobacco Co. is investing $11-million to renovate a 350,000-sf office and warehouse facility in Oxford. Universal Leaf recently completed the construction of a $100-million processing plant in Nash County and the $28-million upgrade of its plant in Danville, Va.

The University of California, San Francisco has completed the 434,000-sf Genentech Hall on its Mission Bay Campus. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership served as design consultant to SmithGroup for the facility, which is the first to be constructed on the new 43-acre campus in San Francisco. Genentech Hall encompasses chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology and computational laboratories, laboratory support, offices, conference facilities, an auditorium, and a cafeteria.

Icon Clinical Research will consolidate operations totalling 25,000 sf from offices in San Bruno and Mountain View with a move in early 2003 to a five-story R&D and office building in Redwood City. Icon provides biometric and clinical research services for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is planning to begin construction on its new 208,000-sf offices in Washington's Suitland Federal Center. Housing millions of dollars of technical equipment, the facility will feature a 140,000-sf "green" roof that functions as a self-sustained bed for local plant life.

Northwestern University recently opened the 40,000-sf Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly in Evanston, Ill. The facility encompasses wet chemistry and complementing laboratories, shared microscope and laser facilities, offices, a seminar room, and other support spaces. The facility is the first federally and privately funded nanotechnology center in the country and will provide a scientific basis for technological advances in the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases and in monitoring the environmental factors that can cause illness.