Animal Research

Texas Tech University broke ground in September of 2019 on a $90 million complex for the School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo. Located at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, the project includes construction of a two-story, 185,000-sf facility providing classrooms, research labs, surgical suites, anatomy labs, and pathology studios. A second building located at Mariposa Station will offer large animal housing facilities and a clinical skills training center.

The South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (ADRDL) celebrated the opening of its expanded Brookings facility in September of 2019. The $58 million project included construction of an 81,000-sf addition offering 3,762 sf of biocontainment space which provides BSL-2E necropsy and BSL-3 facilities. A 4,000-sf chiller plant was also constructed. General contractor McCownGordon broke ground on the expansion in August of 2017. The lab's existing 55,000-sf facility will now undergo renovation and completion is expected in May of 2020.

Changing needs for vivariums have presented facilities managers with an array of challenges: creating more space for housing research animals within existing facilities; ensuring that the environments in which animals are kept meet guidelines set by scientific research agencies and organizations; and ensuring the spaces in which researchers conduct their experiments host well-run vivariums that contribute to, rather than inhibit, the ability to reproduce their results. Manufacturers are responding to these needs with more space-efficient caging systems, more precise and cost-effective environmental controls for animal holding rooms, and technology that can automatically track the health of animals in cages.

Colorado State University will break ground in early 2020 on the $200 million National Western Center Campus in Denver. The 250-acre site will be redeveloped to house three new buildings accommodating research and experiential education programs on global issues including water, food, sustainability, and human and animal health.

Premier BioSource opened a 78,000-sf swine production facility in July of 2019 in Rensselaer, Ind. Designed as a barrier facility with advanced HEPA filtration and positive air pressure systems, the $7.5 million farrow-to-finish complex will enable biomedical research on the creation of organs for xenotransplantation in humans. Supporting lean manufacturing operations, the biocontainment facility features advanced building systems including individual controls for the air pressure in each room and an energy recovery wheel for optimal heat exchange.

Colorado State University broke ground in July of 2019 on the $22 million Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases in Fort Collins. Designed by Merrick & Company and BSA LifeStructures, the 41,000-sf research facility will house the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. The project will provide offices, support space, and BSL-2 labs for the detection and study of arthropod-borne and infectious diseases.

With demand for human donor organs historically and increasingly outpacing the available, viable supply, researchers and physicians have looked for decades at xenotransplantation—cross-species transplantation—as a possible vehicle to overcome the problem. The traditional approach to xenotransplantation, however, is an “impediment to moving transplantation forward,” asserts Karl Kraebber, director of xenotransplantation operations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. His team believes the solution isn’t in expensive and time-consuming renovation of existing buildings. “Our more novel approach is for flexible, modular spaces, to be used for small pilot trials and then scaled up once we have partnership with our governing agencies,” he says. “We’ll take ‘fast and good’ over ‘slow and perfect’ every time. It doesn’t mean we’re cutting corners.”

Hackensack Meridian Health opened the Center for Discovery and Innovation in May of 2019 in Nutley, N.J. Located on the ON3 campus adjacent to Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, the 250,000-sf translational research facility will accelerate the creation of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, dementia, antibiotic-resistant infections, and autoimmune disorders. The center houses the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Institute for Multiple Myeloma, and the Institute for Cancer and Infectious Disease.

Ohio State University broke ground in May of 2019 on the $33.5 million Wooster Science Building. Designed by Hasenstab Architects, the 60,000-sf facility will provide the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences with undergraduate chemistry teaching labs, multifunctional classrooms, an entomology research unit, an insect zoo, and a café. The project is located on the school's Wooster campus and will accommodate programs for the Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI) and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC).

Colorado State University opened the $65 million C. Wayne McIlwraith Translational Medicine Institute in May of 2019 in Fort Collins. The 130,000-sf facility provides the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences with equine and small animal surgery suites, flexible research labs, imaging rooms, instructional spaces, a surgical skills training lab, executive offices, and a 200-seat lecture hall.

Colorado State University opened the $20 million JBS Global Food Innovation Center in April of 2019 in Fort Collins. Designed to promote innovation in food science, nutrition, animal welfare, and food safety, the 36,000-sf facility includes a comprehensive meat harvesting and processing center, a culinary research hub, 200-seat auditorium with a demonstration area, a retail store, and a café.

Misericordia University broke ground in April of 2019 on a $45 million expansion of the Henry Science Center in Dallas Township, Pa. The three-story, 57,400-sf addition will provide classrooms, an electronics fabrication lab, a cadaver suite for the study of anatomy and physiology, and ten teaching labs for biology, chemistry, and physics. The project will also include a cold room for molecular physics experiments, an organic chemistry lab with a 300 megahertz NMR instrument, and vivarium space for small mammals, invertebrates, and aquatics.

The University of Michigan opened the $261 million Biological Science Building in April of 2019 in Ann Arbor. Designed by SmithGroup and Ennead Architects to accommodate 90 principal investigators and their teams, the interdisciplinary building offers 84 wet and dry research labs arranged in open neighborhoods for optimal flexibility.

Operations at the Specific-Pathogen-Free (SPF) vivarium in Australia’s Translational Research Institute (TRI) are likely indicators of trends in animal facilities across the globe. The benefits of automated systems for watering and cagewash, and a robust database to capture a host of operational details—from sterilization runs to task scheduling to costing—have been clearly proven. At the same time, new directions in research, such as study of the microbiome and the gut-brain axis, are sparking a greater need for germ-free and gnotobiotic facilities, a shift that leads to higher ratios of procedure-to-support space and increased staffing levels. The rederivation process and advances in animal health monitoring are also harbingers of change.

A focused and comprehensive programming process was the cornerstone of planning for a new 380,000-sf, seven-story research building at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada. The building is part of CAMH’s multi-year, multi-phase redevelopment project, which includes construction of new inpatient and outpatient facilities, an emergency department, administrative facilities, and a new research building.