Industry News

The University of Connecticut began construction in June of 2015 on the 119,000-sf Innovation Partnership Building in Storrs. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the $170 million project will provide flexible laboratories to support collaborative R&D with industry partners in advanced manufacturing, materials science, cyber infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.

Aesica Pharmaceuticals opened the $50 million High Capacity Manufacturing Facility in Queenborough in the United Kingdom in February of 2014. Designed and built by Scitech, the project will produce one billion tablets a year at current capacity. A second phase of expansion will enable the plant to manufacture 2.5 billion tablets annually. The building features two 59-foot spray granulators and a 925-gallon MatCon IBC (intermediate bulk container). Kirk Saunders was the civil and structural engineer for the project.

Hewlett Packard broke ground on an 89,000-sf R&D facility in Ballybrit in the Republic of Ireland in February of 2014. Designed by Taylor Architects, the building will house 700 employees engaged in software research and the development of cloud computing technologies. The project team includes general contractor M.J. Conroy Group, engineering consultants Arup and RPS, and project manager AECOM. Completion is expected in February of 2015.

Radford University will begin construction in spring of 2014 on a $53 million facility to house the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences in Radford, Va. The 143,600-sf project will enable the University to consolidate all of the college’s departments in a single facility and will provide laboratories, classrooms, offices, a television studio, a moot courtroom, an emergency operations training center, a forensic lab, and student/faculty collaboration space. The project team includes Mosely Architects and construction manager S.B.

The Federation of Korean Industries opened its 50-story headquarters in Seoul in early 2014. The facility features an advanced solar electric façade and has received the highest sustainable design rating from the Korean Institute of Construction Technology. The spandrel panels in the exterior walls are angled at 30 degrees upward toward the sun, maximizing the amount of energy collected, while the vision panels are angled at 15 degrees downward toward the ground, minimizing the amount of direct sun radiation and glare.