Industry News

Delaware State University is building the $60 million Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) in Dover. Ground was broken on the 53,000-sf facility in October of 2012 and construction began in July of 2013. Designed by Richärd+Bauer, OSCAR will house the University’s optics program and is being built as two structures in separate construction phases.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute is partnering with the New York Power Authority to create the Advanced Grid Innovation Laboratory for Energy (AGILe) in Albany, N.Y. Supporting collaborative energy infrastructure research, the facility will enable the simulation, development, testing, and deployment of advanced electrical grid technologies.

Papworth Hospital has awarded Skanska a $208 million contract to a construct a medical center for heart and lung care in the United Kingdom. Located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the $246 million replacement facility is slated for completion in 2018. A second building, the adjacent Heart & Lung Research Institute (HLRI), is being developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge.

Apple is planning to build a four-story, 269,000-sf research and development facility in Yokohama, Japan. Constructed on the site of a former Panasonic factory in Tsunashima-higashi, the sustainably designed project will feature highly efficient building systems, water recycling technologies, and a green roof. Construction is expected to commence by the end of 2015 with completion in 2016.

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte dedicated the Siemens Energy Large Manufacturing Solutions Laboratory in March of 2015. Accommodating research on precision dimensional measurement of large-scale energy components, the facility features a 30-ton Leitz PMM-F machine housed in a temperature-controlled room. The lab is located in the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) and was supported by $2 million in funding from Siemens Energy and Hexagon Metrology.