Industry News

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering has announced the winners of the 2019 Facility of the Year Awards.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst opened the $101 million Physical Sciences Building in April of 2019. Designed by Wilson HGA, the 95,000-sf facility can accommodate 20 faculty-led research groups with a total of 130 reconfigurable bench positions. Supporting scientific discovery in organic chemistry, materials science, and condensed matter physics, the building provides open research labs, extensive core support labs, offices, and collaboration areas.

ONE Life Sciences is planning to construct the £40 million Bio-Therapeutics Hub for Innovation in Aberdeen in the United Kingdom. Located on the Foresterhill Health Campus, the 69,000-sf facility will provide business incubation space, leasable labs and offices for established companies, collaboration areas, conference rooms, and venues for events and colloquia.

The University of Toronto is planning to create Canada's largest university-based innovation node with the construction of the 750,000-sf Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre. Funded in part by a $100 million donation, the interdisciplinary center will feature vertical gardens, soaring atria, and integrated collaboration areas, as well as offering leasable space for startup companies.

Old Dominion University began construction in February of 2019 on a $75.6 million chemistry building in Norfolk, Va. Supporting STEM programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the four-story, 110,000-sf facility will feature 1,800-sf laboratories as a strategic recruitment tool to attract new researchers. Designed with abundant external glazing to put science on display, the building will offer classrooms, teaching and research labs, active learning environments, tutoring rooms, faculty offices, and a high-field robotic NMR suite.