Biomedical

Cellular medicine company ViaCell will relocate its headquarters to 43,000 sf of lab and office space at Cambridge Science Center in Massachusetts. The facility, previously known as Riverview I, is being converted by Equity Office to accommodate 130,000 sf of laboratory space. An 18-story tower, previously named Riverview II, houses 148,000 sf of office space. ViaCell’s footprint of 25,000-sf of lab space and 18,000-sf of office space in the adjoining tower is connected by a common lobby.

Ground will be broken in summer of 2004 on the Blackfan Research Center in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston. Creating 575,000 sf of life sciences research space, the 18-floor building will be sited on three acres adjacent to a Merck facility, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Developed by Lyme Properties LLC, the $250-million project will accommodate medical institutions and life science companies. The project contractor is William A. Berry & Son of Denver. Lyme Properties is also developing a 440,000-sf medical research center called Longwood North.

The Arthur and Gladys Pancoe-Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Life Sciences Pavilion (Pancoe-ENH), designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, officially opened November 14, 2003 at Northwestern University. Located on the Evanston campus, Pancoe-ENH will provide lab space for 24 to 32 principal investigators and their research groups working in the areas of molecular biology, genomics, cell biology, neurobiology, developmental biology and reproductive biology.

The Eisai Research Institute of Boston, a biopharmaceutical research firm, is planning a $50-million expansion and consolidation project in Andover, Mass. Eisai will break ground in late summer of 2004 on a 150,000-sf facility replacing a 66,825-sf office sited adjacent to the company’s existing 40,000-sf drug discovery facility. A new 5,000-sf addition is also included in the project, which involves the consolidation and relocation of Eisai’s Wilmington lab space to the new facility when it opens in 2006.

The Iams Co., a maker of pet food and care products, is developing the Iams Pet Imaging Center at North Carolina State University’s Centennial Biomedical Campus. The 3,348-sf project will be the region’s first MRI facility dedicated for use on pets and domestic animals. The Pet Imaging Center is slated to open in spring of 2004.

The Science Park-Research Division of the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is expanding its Smithville, Texas, campus with the addition of a 10,000-sf conference center. The project includes a 300-seat auditorium and a new physical plant. Construction will begin in early 2004. The division’s campus currently houses five buildings on 720 acres.

The University of Pittsburgh is developing a regional biocontainment laboratory with $18-million in funding from the National Institutes of Heath’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The laboratory, one of nine regional biocontainment labs funded by NIH, will be sited in the Biomedical Science Tower 3 in Oakland, Pa. Additionally, a bioterrorism research center established by Johns Hopkins University will move most of its operations to Oakland in fall of 2003 to become the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston is creating one of the first national biocontainment laboratories with a $120 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The University will contribute the remaining $40 million to build the $160-million, 170,000-sf project. The laboratory will house flexible, high-level biocontainment facilities, clinical facilities, and research support space.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center will build a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory in Memphis, Tenn. Funded by $5 million from the University and a $14 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the facility will accommodate research on bioterrorism and biotechnology and will be located adjacent to UT’s existing vivarium.

The University of Kansas Medical Center recently broke ground on its $56 million Biomedical Research Center in Kansas City, Kan. Part of a $125 million campus development initiative, the 205,000-sf center will focus on neuroscience, genomics, cancer research, and human reproductive biology.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is planning a $25 million, 75,000-sf addition to its existing 245,000-sf headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md.

The Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center of South Texas, a 3.4-million veterinary medical facility, will begin construction in North San Antonio by November 2003. Slated for completion in January 2005, the 18,500-sf center will house animal medicine specialties including oncology, radiology, internal medicine, dermatology, physical therapy, surgery, and ophthalmology. The facility will also house a 24-hour emergency department. The project architect is Marmon Mok with Metropolitan Contracting Co. as general contractor.     

The University of Washington is renovating the 105,00-sf Blue Flame Building in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle as the future home of UW Medicine Lake Union. Vulcan Inc. is the design and construction planner for the project, which is slated to begin in January and reach completion in November 2004. The building will house cancer research, the Program for Translational Medicine in Women's Health, and the Center for Cardiovascular Biology.

Washington University School of Medicine recently completed the $5-million renovation of the fifth floor of the McDonnell Medical Sciences Building. The 30,000-sf project involved gutting the existing floor and constructing new offices, laboratories, cold rooms, microscope rooms, and tissue culture rooms for the departments of molecular oncology and cell biology. The renovation also included the creation of a BSL-3 laboratory. The project contractor was Tarlton Corp. of St. Louis.

Yale School of Medicine’s Biomedical Research and Teaching Facility, known as 300 Cedar Street, is designed to maximize collaboration between basic and clinical scientific disciplines. Designed by Payette Associates, the 450,000-gsf project was dedicated on the New Haven, Ct.,campus in May 2003. A six-story, 350,000-gsf wing supports flexible laboratories for 700 scientists focused on disease-related research. A four-story, 100,000-gsf wing supports medical education including the school’s new gross anatomy and histology teaching laboratories for medical and physician associate students.