Northwestern Medicine is planning to construct a replacement facility for Lake Forest Hospital in Illinois. Designed to provide flexible, patient-centered care, the 483,500-sf project will include 114 private inpatient beds, 72 outpatient care rooms, eight surgical suites, and an imaging center. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility, which is slated for completion in mid-2017.
The Pirbright Institute has awarded John Sisk & Son a $28.6 million contract to build a research facility for the study of livestock diseases. The two-story, 43,000-sf project is referred to as the CL2 Laboratory and will accommodate 90 scientists. BREAAM Excellent sustainable design certification will be sought for the biocontainment level two facility. The lab is part of a planned $168 million expansion of the Pirbright campus that will include a $118 million facility supporting avian disease research.
Apple has initiated site work for the Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino, Calif. The new headquarters will provide 3.42 million sf of office and R&D facilities on a 176-acre campus designed to accommodate 14,000 employees. The project centerpiece is a four-story, 2.8 million-sf circular building with a glass curtainwall and 700,000 rooftop photovoltaic panels, the construction cost of which is $5 billion. A 120,000-sf auditorium, a 100,000-sf fitness center, 100,000 sf of utility plant space, and parking structures will also be built.
The University of Chicago is building the $215 million William Eckhardt Research Center for the Institute for Molecular Engineering. The 265,000-sf facility will house the 12,000-sf Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility and laboratories for astronomy, chemistry, physics, and astrophysics. Providing integrated research offices, conference rooms, interaction space, and an atrium, the seven-story project includes two floors below grade with low-vibration cleanrooms and molecular imaging suites. LEED Gold sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) opened the Singapore Innovation Center in April of 2014. The facility features 250 laboratories housing approximately 500 investigators engaged in materials science, engineering, and biomedical R&D. The project includes a pilot manufacturing plant to support accelerated product development and a 3D printing suite for the creation of packaging. The LEED Silver facility is a zero-waste site and has attained Green Mark sustainable design certification.
Emory University will break ground in spring of 2014 on a $30 million science building for Oxford College. Designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering and built by Brasfield & Gorrie, the four-story, 57,500-sf facility will provide nine teaching labs for biology, chemistry, physics, and geology; three research labs; three classrooms; an imaging center; and a greenhouse. The building will feature faculty-student research suites on each floor and a central interaction atrium.
The National Institutes of Health dedicated the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center in late March of 2014 in Bethesda, Md. Comprised of two buildings connected by a glass atrium, the collaborative 500,000-sf facility provides open laboratories, offices, and an advanced MRI suite for researchers from 10 NIH neuroscience institutes and centers. Construction on the first building began in 2001 and was completed in 2004.
Frostburg State University is building the $66 million Center for Communication and Information Technology in Frostburg, Md. Designed by Ayers Saint Gross of Washington, D.C., the three-story, 127,000-sf facility will provide instructional space for mathematics and computer science as well as housing the mass communications department. The building will also include a 5,500-sf conference room, audio and video studios, and a multimedia learning center with a planetarium, a telescope, and a 3D theater.
University Health System opened the Sky Tower in San Antonio in April of 2014. The 10-story, 1 million-sf facility provides 420 private inpatient rooms, an 84-bed emergency department, 35 operating rooms, and a trauma center. LEED Gold sustainable design certification will be sought for the tower, which features robotic technology for the delivery of medical equipment. The project is part of a $900 million capital improvement plan that included construction of a new clinical pavilion on the Brady Green campus.
MacEwan University will begin construction in summer of 2014 on the $153 million Centre for Arts and Communications in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. Designed by Bing Thom Architects, the five-story building will provide two theaters, multimedia studios, classrooms, and galleries.
An evidence-based approach to designing and analyzing research laboratories—one that focuses on practical and interrelated reductions in energy use—offers long-term cost benefits that trump popular but often-underperforming symbolic gestures. Traditional thinking suggests that sustainable construction of research labs, which are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the world, costs many times more than the non-green alternative. Not so, say the designers at Payette, a Boston architectural firm.
The University of California, San Diego dedicated the $113 million Health Sciences Biomedical Research Facility in March of 2014 in La Jolla, Calif. Designed by ZGF Architects, the 196,000-sf building provides wet bench laboratories, open lab space, lab support, offices, conference rooms, and an interaction atrium. A basement level accommodates core labs and mechanical systems.
Weber State University will begin construction in June of 2014 on the 175,000-sf Tracy Hall Science Center in Ogden, Utah. Supported by $57.4 million in state funding and a $5 million philanthropic contribution, the facility will house all eight departments of the College of Science in a single location. The project design principles spell out the word ‘science’: sustainability, connectedness, inviting, engaging, nature, comfortable, and exploration.
The Sir Samuel Griffith Centre at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, is the embodiment of a living laboratory. The project, funded through the Australian government’s Education Investment Fund, delivers the world’s first large-scale, zero-emission research and teaching facility that utilizes solar power and energy storage as hydrogen.
Washington State University broke ground in March of 2014 on the $52.8 million PACCAR Clean Technology Laboratory Building in Pullman. Supporting research on advanced materials, renewable energy, atmospheric science, and hydrology, the 96,000-sf interdisciplinary facility will provide specialized core labs, common support areas, offices, faculty and student research space, and conference areas. The project team includes LMN Architects, general contractor Skanska, and laboratory design consultant Research Facilities Design.
