Industry News

Idaho State University is partnering with the Idaho National Laboratory to construct the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) in Idaho Falls. The CAES facility will be an international user facility for promoting and performing research and revitalizing education and training in nuclear energy science, engineering, technology, and related disciplines. The facility is expected to encompass 50,000 gsf to 60,000 gsf with approximately half of the building dedicated to laboratory space. Occupancy is slated for 2008.

Florida Atlantic University, in joint venture with the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, has opened the 40,000-sf Marine Science Education Building in Fort Pierce, Fla. The $11-million facility is sited near Harbor Branch’s campus and is owned by the University. The public-private partnership will provide space for biological, chemical, and marine science research in order to develop pharmaceutical products from marine organisms. The facility includes a conference area and laboratories with autoclave fermentation technology.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) opened its new $22-million Science and Technology Facility in Golden, Colo., in July of 2006. Designed to consolidate its research facilities into a single campus, the building enables NREL scientists to collaborate with private sector companies in photovoltaics and energy efficiency research. The Science and Technology Facility will also house the Department of Energy's local field office and 130 employees. Three additional facilities are planned at the site with construction beginning in 2007.

Maverick Tube Corp . will begin construction on a $63-million production facility in Louisville, Ky., in early 2005. Consolidating steel conduit operations for the company, the 400,000-sf building will be sited on 50 acres at Jefferson Riverport International. Completion is expected by year-end 2005. Maverick Tube produces tubular steel products for applications in the energy and industrial markets.

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, has retained The Stubbins Associates and Philadelphia-based Kling to provide architecture and engineering design services for The Cleveland Center for Structural Biology (CCSB) and The Wright Fuel Cell Group facility. The CCSB will house one of only four 900 MHz NMR spectrometers in the country. Once completed, the one-story, 18,500-sf facility will house both CCSB's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility and the Advancement Power Institute's Fuel Cell Laboratory.