Biomedical

Scripps Research Institute is constructing three buildings totaling 350,000-sf on 40 acres adjoining Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter. Slated for completion by year-end 2008, the facilities will house biomedical research laboratories, technology space, and offices. A grand opening is set for Feb. 26, 2009. The buildings under construction at Scripps Florida include the Molecular and Biomedical Research building, the Advanced Technologies and Administration building, and the Drug Discovery building.

Response Biomedical Corporation will relocate to its new global headquarters in Vancouver, B.C. on March 31, 2008. The 46,000-sf specialized use facility was specifically designed and constructed for development, GMP manufacturing, and distribution of point-of-care (POC) medical diagnostic test kits. The new facility should allow manufacturing scale-up from approximately 500,000 tests currently manufactured per year to four million tests per year by mid-2008, based on the demands of industry partners including 3M and Shinogi & Co. of Japan.

Yale School of Medicine completed the fit-out of a 70,000-sf translational research facility at its New Haven, Conn., campus in March of 2008. The project contractor was Tucker Mechanical, a subsidiary of EMCOR Group. Tucker Mechanical provided all HVAC and plumbing for the 70,000 square-foot building which was originally designed as an office. Comprised of five floors and a penthouse, the building was constructed to attain LEED certification.

Yale University is planning to construct a 180,000-sf biomedical research building in New Haven, Conn. Designed by Pelli Clark Pelli, the five-story facility will be comprised of an underground lab support floor, three floors of laboratories, and a mechanical penthouse and greenhouses on the fourth floor. LEED Gold certification for sustainable design will be sought for the project. The research facility will be connected to the Kline Biology Tower by a bridge. 

The Qatar Foundation began construction in early 2008 on the Sidra Medical and Research Center in Doha, Qatar. Designed by Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli and executive architectural firm Ellerbe Becket, the center will provide world-class clinical care, medical education, and biomedical research facilities. Funded by $7.9 billion (US) by the Qatar Foundation, the project is located on the Education City campus near Weill Cornell Medical College.

The University of Florida celebrated the topping out of the new UF Biomedical Sciences Building in Gainesville on February 29, 2008. The six-story, 160,000-sf multidisciplinary facility is slated for completion in early 2009.

Boston University broke ground in late February 2008 on its new facility at Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC). The project, part of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Centre, is slated for completion in 2011. The facility will house graduate and postgraduate programs in dentistry and allied health sciences.

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is planning to construct the 130,000-sf Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Funded by $60 million from the state of Florida and $53 million in infrastructure expenditures from the city of Port St. Lucie, the facility will operate on funds from National Institutes of Health research grants. The project, to be constructed in the Florida Center for Innovation at Tradition over three years, will be modeled on OHSU’s Beaverton facility with which it will be affiliated.

Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (TPIMS) initiated construction in February of 2008 on a $40 million, 100,000-sf headquarters facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Comprised of office and laboratory space, the project is being built by Suffolk Construction in the Florida Center for Innovation at Tradition. The 189-employee building is slated to open in 2009 and will house $9 million in equipment. The project will seek LEED certification for sustainable design and construction.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston will begin construction in early 2010 on a $90 million general research building. Located adjacent to UTMB’s Primary Care Pavilion, the laboratory and office building is slated for completion in 2012. The 140,000-sf facility will reach four to five stories high and will contain 76,000-sf of dedicated research space.

Emory Vaccine Center partnered with the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in January of 2008 to create the Joint ICGEB-Emory Vaccine Center in New Delhi, India. The center will accommodate vaccine research for diseases including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, dengue fever, and malaria. Funding to support scientific staff will be provided by Emory University with ICGEB providing space and infrastructure.

The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine is planning a 1.4 million-sf life science park in Miami, Fla. Sited on 7.2 acres, the development will foster advances in translational research by building partnerships between private biotech and biomedical companies and University researchers. The project was in the design phase in January of 2008 with initial construction expected to begin in 2010.

The Hauptman-Woodward Institute’s Structural Biology Research Center in Buffalo, N.Y., received a National Award of Merit from the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) in January of 2008. Designed by Cannon Design of San Francisco with RFD (Research Facilities Design) as laboratory design consultant, the Structural Biology Research Center is a showcase for the state-of-the-art biomedical research that takes place within its laboratories.

Boston University’s BioSquare laboratory was recently awarded LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Designed by KlingStubbins of Cambridge, Ma., the 176,000-sf project is located in Boston’s South End neighborhood. Jones Lang LaSalle is the development manager, leasing agent, property manager, and construction manager for the project. The BioSquare complex was built to support innovation in biomedical research and science with the most modern, sophisticated, energy-efficient building systems.

The University of Kansas is constructing a two-story, 8,300-sf laboratory for an individual cancer therapeutics researcher, Blake Peterson, on its Lawrence campus. To be attached to the Structural Biology Center, the facility is funded by $5 million from the Kansas Bioscience Authority. Slated for completion in August of 2008, the laboratory will be used to synthesize molecules for cancer drugs and will include animals such as zebrafish for testing purposes.