Jacobs Engineering Group was selected by the Office of Property Management for the District of Columbia government to provide project development and construction support for the new Consolidated Forensics Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The $218 million project includes 240,000-gsf of laboratory, support, and amenity space.
The Department of Defense broke ground on the $92 million Joint Center of Excellence for Battlefield Health and Trauma Research at Fort Sam Houston in Texas in January of 2008. Accommodating combat casualty care and trauma research missions, the 150,000-sf project is part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) initiative. Slated for completion in September of 2009, the research center will be collocated with the Institute of Surgical Research, which will receive a 5,000-sf renovation.
Aurora, Colo.-based Merrick & Company received an engineering excellence award in December of 2007 from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado. Merrick was recognized with a Building/Technology Systems Award for work on the BSL-3Ag Large Animal Health Facility project in Ames, Iowa. Merrick provided detailed architectural and engineering design services for one of the initial elements of the $460 million modernization of the USDA National Centers for Animal Health.
The National Park Service opened the $4.4 million Twin Creeks Science and Education Center in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in fall of 2007. The 15,000-sf facility houses research for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), a project documenting the 800-square-mile Park’s estimated 100,000 species of living organisms. Designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent, the facility is seeking LEED Silver certification for sustainable design.
Situated as the symbolic heart of a newly transformed three million-sf research and administrative campus, the General Service Administration’s (GSA) and US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new Central Shared Use Building was recognized by two leading professional societies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has attained a LEED Gold certification for Building 110 in Atlanta. The first high performance federal government laboratory to attain LEED Gold, the facility shows an upfront cost savings of $847,000 due to flexible lab and office design. Inclusion of interstitial floors eliminated the need to build an entire additional floor. Annual savings generated by the facility include $400,000 from ease of laboratory reconfiguration; $175,000 from energy savings; and $500,000 from productivity gains due to a healthy workplace.
The U.S. Senate passed the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs 2008 spending bill in September of 2007. Providing over $963 million for military facility projects in Maryland, the bill will fund a two-stage expansion of the existing U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) laboratory. The completed $1-billion facility will be comprised of 1.1 million sf and will accommodate 1,300 employees. The first phase of the project will reach completion in 2012 with the second phase culminating in 2016.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Wisconsin-Madison $41 million over five years to support research at UW's Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The funding, a Clinical and Translational Science Award, is one of the largest ever received by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. The award will support the application of biomedical research to clinical treatment.
The U.S. Department of Energy has contracted Trane to develop strategies to reduce energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Part of the Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) initiative, the project aims to reduce energy intensity at the DOE’s sites nationwide by 30 percent for a savings of $90 million per year after the projects have been paid for. Trane will initiate building system upgrades, as well as implementing energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) at selected DOE sites to create high performance facilities.
The National Institutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is creating six Regional Centers for Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. Each center will receive $23 million per year for the next seven years to support influenza research. The participating institutions are Emory University School of Medicine, St.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate is exploring possible sites for its proposed $500 million National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF). Locations include Flora, Miss.; Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.; Texas Research Park in San Antonio; Umstead Research Farm, N.C.; the University of Georgia in Athens; and Plum Island, N.Y., the location of the existing BSL-3 Animal Disease Center which the NBAF will replace.
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has collaborated with the U.S. General Services Administration to write and design a new book, Achieving Great Federal Public Spaces: A Property Manager’s Guide. This book is a valuable tool for federal and non-federal public building property managers seeking to evaluate and improve their lobbies, atriums, plazas, courtyards, and other public spaces.
The University of Chicago has appointed Laurence Hill as Associate Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories. The position was created due to a new University contract with Fermilab and will include responsibility for site office operations, University contract management, and board staffing for Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
The World Health Organization's 2007 report states that infectious diseases are emerging more rapidly and spreading more quickly due to increased human mobility and travel. As the increasing risk of disease outbreaks and epidemics escalates, these health emergencies can become threats to global public health security. The World Health Report 2007 examines contemporary infectious disease trends and examines the revised International Health Regulations (2005), which came into force in 2007, as a tool for health risk identification and management.
The City of Walnut Creek, Calif., has selected Gilbane Building Company to serve as CM Agent for the city's new $43.5 million library and parking garage. This 42,000 sf, two-story building is located in roughly the same location as the current downtown library built in 1961. Due to the current library being outdated and undersized, this project is intended to provide the needed space for books and materials, as well as the construction of an underground parking lot with approximately 150 spaces for public parking.
