Industry News

Rice University will begin construction in fall of 2009 on the $44.5 million Brockman Hall for Physics in Houston. The National Institute of Standards and Technology awarded $11 million in stimulus funding for the project in July of 2009.

The University of Miami was awarded $15 million in stimulus funding in July of 2009 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to build the $44 million Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater (MTLSS) Research Building in Miami, Fla. To be constructed at the University’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the facility will house state-of-the-art seawater laboratories and multidisciplinary research facilities dedicated to two major areas of coastal studies—the destructive power of hurricanes and the biology of coastal waters.

Intel Corp. is engaged in a $2.5 million upgrade of the Fab 11X manufacturing complex in Rio Rancho, N.M. The facility will house a 400,000-sf cleanroom and will begin producing 32 nanometer chips in fall of 2010. The building includes a central computer control room to monitor the plant’s advanced manufacturing equipment. Fab 11X was completed in 2002 and was renovated in 2007.

Dow AgroSciences will break ground in August of 2009 on an 80,000-sf R&D facility adjacent to its existing headquarters in Indianapolis. The two-story facility will be developed and owned by Browning Investments and leased by Dow. Designed by BSA Life Structures of Indianapolis, the building will house laboratories accommodating 100 researchers. Occupancy is expected in mid-2010. Dow AgroSciences is a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co.

NASA broke ground on a $23 million office building in Hampton, Va., in July of 2009. The 72,000-sf Building 1 will be constructed to attain LEED Gold sustainable design certification. The project is part of a $200 million renovation and expansion of Langley Research Center to support aeronautics research with improved facilities and infrastructure.