Latest Reports

The new building housing George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health provides the first real home for the school, which was established in 1997. It brings together seven departments occupying space in various university buildings and several leased locations in and around GW’s Foggy Bottom campus. Just blocks from the White House, the school draws heavily upon its location to bring the real-world perspective of legislators, practitioners, and researchers to public health education.

The three-story, 183,000-sf “@4240” building—originally constructed in 1948 as a telephone handset factory—provides flexible tenant solutions, including customized labs for both large- and small-molecule research; dry labs for electronic, medical device, or software research; and modern office space.

With an overwhelming amount of space data—collected from and managed by RFID chips, space utilization models, visual schedule maps, BIM—the best outcomes increasingly rely on the ability to analyze, distill, and communicate that information, according to Jeff Funovits and Alex Wing, principals with Stantec. This is particularly true when it comes to the design and planning of medical, research, and educational environments, where efficiency and meaningful learning or clinical outcomes are the measures of success.

Sustained growth over the past 18 months has pushed new construction prices above the long-term trend line for the first time since 2009, according to third-quarter economic data. Capital construction prices are now trending at an annual escalation rate of 4 to 8 percent, depending on region, with northeastern and southern states showing the greatest increase. Regional labor demand is also driving up project bids in midwestern states.

Genentech’s custom-built colony management system (CMS) is allowing the organization to dramatically improve efficiency and reduce waste at its massive 150,000-sf vivarium facility east of San Francisco. In its first year of implementation, the system reduced operational inefficiencies by more than 150 percent and saved the organization more than $2 million, while also improving living conditions for mice and empowering husbandry and colony management staff.