NextCorps opened an entrepreneurship hub in Rochester in February of 2018. Located in the Sibley Square building, the project was created by the University of Rochester, the state of New York, and the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Princeton University is partnering with BioLabs to create the 31,000-sf Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs on the James Forrestal Campus in New Jersey. Accommodating up to 25 startup companies, the business incubator and coworking space will offer 68 lab benches, private offices, and hot desks in a collaborative environment designed to foster entrepreneurial innovation. Occupancy is expected in April of 2018. BioLabs is a national provider of shared lab and office facilities, with locations in San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, and New York.
Global manufacturing company Henkel opened its North American consumer goods headquarters in Stamford in February of 2018. Designed by Ware Malcomb to promote interaction, the three-story, 155,000-sf facility provides flexible work spaces for 425 employees. The building offers collaborative offices arranged in team neighborhoods as well as focus rooms, huddle rooms, and conference rooms. On the first floor, a research and development facility is sited adjacent to offices and presentation suites.
The WELL Building Standard™ codifies several design and operational attributes that promote human health and wellness in the workplace. The outgrowth of a collaboration among architects, engineers, and the medical community to identify and address today’s top public health concerns, WELL takes conventional wellness initiatives several steps further by advancing a people-centric agenda that focuses holistically on employees’ physical, mental, and social well-being.
The Medical College of Wisconsin opened the $90 million Hub for Collaborative Medicine in February of 2018 in Wauwatosa. Designed by Flad Architects, the eight-story, 318,000-sf administrative building can house 1,500 occupants, including clinicians, researchers, faculty members, and administrative staff. The facility is physically connected to the existing Medical Education and Health Research Center buildings to the north at multiple levels, and connected to the Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratory Building to the south by an enclosed elevated skywalk.
Mass Innovation Labs, a provider of life science research space solutions, signed a ground lease in December of 2017 for 54,0000 sf at Innovation Square Seaport (iSQ) in Boston. Located in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, the 375,000-sf iSQ campus is being built by Related Beal, a real estate developer, owner, and operator. Mass Innovation Labs will anchor the first two floors of the multi-tenant facility, which will include coworking spaces and a collaboration center.
Ford Motor Company is expanding and renovating its research and manufacturing facilities in Michigan. Construction will begin in mid-2017 on a $200 million data center in Romeo. In 2018, a truck and SUV production facility in Wayne will be retooled at a cost of $850 million. Ford will also invest $150 million to expand its Wayne engine manufacturing plant.
GlaxoSmithKline began construction in December of 2016 on a 100,000-sf SMART laboratory and office facility in Upper Providence, Pa. Skanska has been awarded the $45 million contract for demolition and renovation of four floors in an existing structure to implement GSK’s Smart Space concept, which features integrated technological innovations for research and productivity. Completion is expected in October of 2017.
Organizations of all types are using location-based social media data and other user-generated information to improve workspace design and functionality. By researching occupancy data, user satisfaction ratings, and other metrics, facility designers are finding smarter ways to lower costs and create efficiencies. While some organizations mine existing trace data automatically generated by mobile devices and building management systems, others are developing customized platforms dedicated to capturing key information.
Leading-edge interdisciplinary facilities like the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) at Rutgers University, as well as facilities in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., are transforming academic research culture through the use of open building designs that foster cross-discipline collaborations and “emergent outcomes.” This approach to culture-driven facility design is also being successfully deployed at other universities across the country in an effort to improve the way research institutes operate and compete for grants and contracts.
Vassar College completed construction in spring of 2016 on the $125 million Integrated Science Commons in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Designed by Ennead Architects, the project features the 82,000-sf Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, a teaching and research building that spans a ravine.
Whether personal or professional, change evokes an emotional response. Workplace change initiatives, especially those relating to space, nudge (or jolt) employees out of their comfort zones and typically entail some modification in routine and behavior. Relationships change, as well, and questions arise about how to continue performing at a high level in the new environment. The fastest, most productive change strategies take these human dimensions into account.
Ford Motor Company will begin construction in May of 2016 on a comprehensive redevelopment of its real estate portfolio in Dearborn, Mich. The project will include construction of a 700,000-sf design facility as well as the expansion and renovation of Ford's existing headquarters campus. Designed by SmithGroupJJR to promote collaboration and interaction, the updated buildings will feature open workspaces with unassigned seating.
Workspace planners are often asked to design to a 10-to-20-year time horizon, but the more rapidly technology advances, the harder this becomes. And it’s not just the hardware, software, and work tasks that are going to change, says Kay Sargent, director of workplace strategies at Lendlease. It’s also the workers themselves. Science shows that workers’ brains are going to work differently in 20 years, says Sargent, and companies need to start planning for this now, or pay the price.
The Shared Resource Center, which will provide new lab space for four existing core facilities at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Fla., is nearing completion with substantial buy-in from staff, despite a sometimes challenging consensus-building process, according to Moffitt’s Christine O’Connell, senior director of laboratory research operations and Susan Constable, manager of shared resources.
