Animal Research

Washington State University Vancouver dedicated the $63.8 million Life Sciences Building in June of 2024. Designed by SRG + CannonDesign, the 60,000-sf facility collocates the university’s basic, translational, applied, and clinical health programs in a single integrated location. The three-story structure provides faculty research suites, classrooms and teaching labs for biology and chemistry, and specialized learning venues for courses in nursing, psychology, neuroscience, medicine, and molecular biology.

Designs by ZMM Architects and Engineers and CannonDesign are underway for a new facility that will bring together under one roof three West Virginia state laboratories and researchers from two universities, creating novel opportunities for collaboration. McClaren, Wilson & Lawrie (MWL) are the lab planners for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and State Police Forensics, and Potesta & Associates are providing civil engineering services. Housed in the new building will be:

Construction has begun on the Marine Research Institute and Sea Turtle Research Center and Hospital at the University of Florida’s Whitney Lab for Marine Bioscience. The building, designed by Lord Aeck Sargent and TTV Architects, is planned for LEED Gold certification. DPR is the construction manager.

Many Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories face operational challenges stemming from their aging facilities, which can jeopardize the biosafety and biosecurity of their environment and hinder testing efficacy and turnaround times. Key strategies to modernizing these facilities include evaluating and improving sample receiving protocols and personnel/material circulation, as well as spatial planning and process optimization of the necropsy operation. These steps are aimed at improving the efficacy and efficiency of diagnostic services; achieving necessary biosecurity and biosafety standards; and attaining accreditation from the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network. 

Clemson University is planning to break ground in late 2024 on a $285.5 million facility for the College of Veterinary Medicine. Addressing a nationwide shortage of veterinarians, the 232,500-gsf complex will offer sophisticated learning environments for programs in animal health. The development will support a distributed pedagogical model that prepares students to go directly to local animal hospitals for training and clinical study, instead of spending several years in a teaching hospital.

The use of animals in biomedical research, already a decades-long ethically charged issue, has come under fire in more recent years for both a lack of scientific rigor and its huge financial appetite. Concerns about waste in basic research—in animal lives, scientist time, and research costs—are mounting, particularly when investigators are unable to confirm the data and achieve the same results when replicating original experiments (either theirs or others’). The solution? Track the effects of extrinsic environmental factors that can impact an animal's behavior, health, and reproduction: temperature, humidity, light, noise, and vibration.

Cal Poly will begin construction in April of 2024 on the Charles and Claire Jacobsen Animal Health Center in San Luis Obispo. Designed by Gensler, the $30 million project will address a growing demand for courses in veterinary medicine and animal agriculture. Clinical environments will be collocated with academic functions to allow students to engage in experiential learning and training. Providing 17,500 sf of program space, the state-of-the-art building will offer wet labs, examination and procedure rooms, a surgical suite, and a necropsy facility.

Increasing demand for BSL-3 and ABSL-3 lab space in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving up interest in renovating existing research facilities to accommodate these high-containment spaces. Even a small BSL-3 lab can be a costly undertaking, with special attention required for security of both personnel and biohazards, location in the building, and waste disposal, as well as the design and commissioning of exhaust system.

The University of California, Irvine is constructing the $250 million Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building to accelerate the discovery of new modalities for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Designed by LMN Architects, the 215,000-sf structure will provide advanced wet labs where teams of investigators will engage in cross-disciplinary research. Featuring integrated collaboration venues and support spaces, the project will also include offices, meeting rooms, and a vivarium.

The Ohio State University broke ground in January of 2024 on the $52 million Multispecies Animal Learning Center in Columbus. Designed by Wellogy, the 100,000-sf facility will provide the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences with a dynamic hub for training and research. State-of-the-art classrooms and demonstration areas will support a progressive pedagogy of experiential education, augmented by a series of interconnecting barns with specialized housing for swine, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and poultry.

Tulane University opened the Steven and Jann Paul Hall for Science and Engineering in January of 2024 in New Orleans. Designed by Payette and Waggonner & Ball, the 76,000-sf building offers flexible research venues, sophisticated classrooms, and common spaces for increased student and faculty interaction.

Washington University in St. Louis opened the $616 million Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building in January of 2024. Designed by Perkins&Will and CannonDesign, the 608,825-sf facility provides interactive lab neighborhoods where up to 120 teams can engage in collaborative discovery. An 11-story, 584,050-sf research tower is capable of accommodating up to 1,000 investigators from the departments of neurology, neuroscience, neurosurgery, psychiatry, and anesthesiology.

The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), is becoming Canada’s Centre for Pandemic Research, preparing Canada for emerging health threats by expanding its expertise and infrastructure. This includes opening a new Vaccine Development Centre (VDC) to manufacture vaccines; constructing a new multispecies animal housing facility; enhancing its biosafety containment to the highest level to facilitate research on the most complex pathogens; and using its nearly five decades of success to attract top scientists. 

Louisiana State University Health Shreveport celebrated the completion of the $79 million Center for Medical Education in December of 2023. Designed by Perkins&Will and Coleman Partners Architects, the four-story, 155,000-sf facility features a 500-seat auditorium-in-the-round, three 250-seat active learning classrooms, and 27 flexible instructional venues. Simulation suites and clinical skills labs leverage immersive technologies to enhance experiential education and training.

The University of South Alabama broke ground in December of 2023 on a dynamic new home for the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine in Mobile. Designed by Perkins&Will and Eskew Dumez Ripple, the $200 million facility will address a nationwide shortage of physicians by enabling the first-year class size to increase from 80 to 100, with the capability to accommodate 125 students in the future.