Research and Development

The University of Wyoming is planning to build the $30 million Energy Engineering Research Facility (EERF) in Laramie. The 81,000-sf building will feature large-scale, flexibly configured research laboratories, offices, and meeting areas. The project team includes Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects of Seattle, Malone Belton Abel of Laramie, and GSG Architecture of Casper. Construction will begin in fall of 2014 with completion expected in spring of 2016.

Northwestern Medicine is planning to build a new biomedical research facility in Chicago. Connecting to the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center on every level, the building will provide between 300,000 and 500,000 sf of advanced translational research space. Total build-out is estimated at 1.2 million sf. The $1 billion project also includes the renovation of 250,000 sf of lab space in existing facilities.

Tradeline asked 115 individuals representing 94 research organizations to prioritize their areas of focus for 2013 and to make open-ended comments regarding these priorities. The priorities identified in this survey will be the focus of Tradeline's upcoming conference: The 2013 International Conference on Research Facilities on May 9-10 in Boston.

The respondents’ overall priorities, in order of importance, are:

The newly renovated Saint Luke's Neuroscience Institute opened in January of 2013 in Kansas City, Mo. The $32 million project was designed by ACI/Boland with J.E. Dunn Construction as general contractor. Integrating research with clinical care, the project provides four dedicated neurological operation rooms, a 13-bed recovery unit, three neurointerventional suites, an 18-bed ICU, and 68 private patient rooms. The duration of construction was one year.

The University of California, San Diego broke ground in January of 2013 on the $269 million Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute in La Jolla. Supporting the integration of genetic sequencing technologies into patient diagnosis and treatment, the seven-story, 315,000-sf project will provide collaborative research labs and offices for clinical investigators, informatics researchers, and biomedical scientists. The facility is located near Thornton Hospital, the Moores Cancer Center, the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, and the new Jacobs Medical Center.

GlobalFoundries will build the $2 billion Technology Development Center on its Fab 8 campus in Malta, N.Y. The 565,000-sf, three-story R&D facility will include a 90,000-sf cleanroom for advanced chip manufacturing. Construction will begin in spring of 2013 with completion expected in 2014.

RTI Biologics broke ground on the $14 million Logistics and Technology Center in January of 2013. Located in Alachua, Fla., the 41,165-sf facility provides cleanrooms, R&D offices, laboratories, and support space. RTI is a manufacturer of sterile biological implants. The expansion brings RTI's total campus footprint to approximately 200,000 sf.

Sanofi-Aventis broke ground in December of 2012 on a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia. Sited on a 377,000-sf plot of land near the city of Thuwal, the building will support the production of cardiovascular and oral anti-diabetic products.  

Fermilab is planning to build a $50 million facility in Lead, S.D., as the first phase of the $867 million Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) project. Housing a $250 million neutrino detector, the building will feature concrete walls ten feet thick to provide temperature insulation and shielding from cosmic rays. The detector itself will contain 10 kilotons of liquid Argon to provide cryostasis, the process of cooling to low sub-zero temperatures. The facility will be sited near the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

The University of Wollongong is building the $26 million Sustainable Buildings Research Centre in New South Wales, Australia. The 28,000-sf facility will be the first Australian project to be certified by the Living Building Challenge and is expected to attain a six-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Designed by Cox Richardson of Sydney and built by Baulderstone, the net-zero-energy and net-zero-water building will feature an advanced HVAC system, photovoltaics, wind turbines, and a ground source heat exchanger.

Although relatively small in size compared to more established research institutions, the University of New England (UNE) is making tremendous strides in growing its research and scholarship programs and infrastructure despite a shrinking pool of available grant funding. The private university, founded in 1978, began focusing its expansion efforts on biomedical research only within the past decade.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has renovated 4,000 sf of research space to consolidate its aquaculture facilities in the Eugene Braunwald Research Center, where the environmental temperature, humidity, and lighting are regulated to sustain a successful zebrafish colony. Fixed equipment includes 96 racks capable of sustaining up to 6,600 tanks; two dedicated reverse osmosis water supply systems; and new pump and filtration systems on multiple independent circuits, with separate large-scale breeding chambers and an isolated quarantine area.

The University of Minnesota is expanding and renovating the 152,800-sf Amundson Hall in Minneapolis. The project includes construction of a 41,140-sf addition and 6,676 sf of renovation and infrastructure improvements. Amundson Hall houses the department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, the Industrial Partnership for Research, and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Work began on the facility in November of 2012 and completion is expected in fall of 2014.

The University of Chicago Medical Center will open the $688 million Center for Care and Discovery in February of 2013. The 10-story, 1.2 million-sf hospital pavilion will support the research and treatment of complex medical conditions. The adjacent Mitchell Hospital will be renovated to provide single-patient rooms. 

The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) opened 30,000 sf of BSL-3 laboratory space at Fort Detrick in December of 2012. The facilities have been accredited by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, enabling the center to operate at full capacity. Construction was completed on the project in 2009. NBACC is operated by Battelle National Biodefense Institute for the Department of Homeland Security and includes 11,000 sf of BSL-4 space.