Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast has awarded Harry Pepper & Associates of Jacksonville, Fla., a $12.5 million contract to design and build the Littoral Warfare Systems Facility in Panama City. The two-story R&D facility will include high bay space, laboratories, secure computing areas, and administration. Completion is slated for November of 2009.
The University of Minnesota is developing a $292 million biomedical research park in Minneapolis. The project includes the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, slated for completion in summer of 2010; the Cancer Biomedical Research and the Lillehei Biomedical Research buildings, to be completed in 2012; and the Infectious Disease and Neuroscience Biomedical Research Building, slated for completion in 2013.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has awarded a joint venture of Lydig Construction and George Grant Inc. a $106 million contract to complete the 200,000-sf Physical Sciences Facility. Replacing labs and offices at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that will be vacated by 2011 to prepare for environmental cleanup, the Physical Sciences Facility will support national security and energy research missions with three main buildings: radiation detection, materials science and technology, and nuclear and chemical weapons compliance testing.
Wyeth Nutritionals has awarded a $400 million contract to a partnership of M+W Zander and PM Group to provide design, project management, and construction oversight for two projects. A 50,000-sm infant nutrition facility will be constructed in Suzhou, China. The $280 million greenfield project is slated for completion in late 2010. In Singapore, a 12,000-sm expansion of an existing facility will reach completion in late 2009.
The University of California, Berkeley has selected contractor McCarthy to build the $160 million Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. Accommodating research into the molecular basis for disease, the facility will focus on infectious diseases, gene regulation, stem cell biology, and neurodegenerative diseases. The project architect is Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership. Construction is slated to begin in 2008 and reach completion in 2011.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded $267 million for the construction of 12 stem cell research facilities on May 7, 2008. Supported by institutional and philanthropic financing, a total of $832 million in stem cell research facilities will be constructed in California.
TRUMPF Inc. opened its 86,000-sf Laser Innovation & Technical Excellence (LITE) Building on April 30, 2008 in Farmington, Conn. The $29 million research and development facility features a 55,200-sf production hall and a 6,000-sf, Class 10,000 manufacturing cleanroom. The building broke ground in fall of 2006 and can accommodate 120 employees.
Texas A&M University opened the R. Ken Williams '45 Radiogenic Isotope Geosciences Laboratory on May 3, 2008 in College Station. The facility began construction in October 2007 and houses interdisciplinary research space for the College of Geosciences. Accommodating the disciplines of geochronology, tectonics, paleoceanography, environmental geochemistry, and climate-change research, the facility contains Class 1000 and Class 100 chemistry laboratories, a mass spectrometry lab, a sample prep lab, and faculty offices.
Florida State University opened the $72 million Chemical Sciences Laboratory in Tallahassee on May 2, 2008. Housing education and research space, the 168,000-sf, five-story building will accommodate approximately 250 researchers. The building has a total of 145 fume hoods and includes core research facilities, a 160-seat lecture hall, flexible laboratories, and synthetic organic chemistry labs. The facility will enable FSU to expand research programs in the molecular sciences.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison broke ground on the $150 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery in Madison on May 2, 2008. The 300,000-sf interdisciplinary biomedical research building will be comprised of four stories above ground and one below, and will house research offices, an atrium, and flexible dry, wet, and combination laboratories. The collaborative public-private research project will accommodate biotechnology, health science, nanotechnology, engineering, and stem cell research.
Genzyme Corp. is planning to construct a new 200,000-sf R&D center in the Zhongguancun Life Science Park in Beijing. The $90 million facility will accommodate research and development in areas including orthopedics, transplant and immune disease, oncology, endocrinology, and cardiovascular disease, as well as laboratory-scale operations for the MACI(R) (matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation) cell therapy and polyclonal antibody operations.
The University of Southampton will open the £55 million Mountbatten Building in late 2008 in Southampton, UK. Connecting on all levels to the existing Zepler Building, the interdisciplinary nanotechnology and microelectronics facility will include cleanrooms, research laboratories, and offices. Housing the School of Electronics and Computer Sciences and the Optoelectronics Research Centre, the facility will accommodate the fabrication and characterization of materials with a concentration on the structuring and modifying of materials at the nanoscale.
SAFC Hitech, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group, opened its $9 million state-of-the-art cleanroom in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., on April 29, 2008. The 5,000-sf facility, comprised of an ISO Class 4 cleanroom, a distillation suite, and office space, provides in-house trace metals analysis and the capability to clean and fill containers in a tightly-controlled environment.
Construction began on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France, in spring of 2008. The $16.7 billion project aims to enable the fusion of hydrogen isotopes to create helium, releasing vast amounts of energy. Housing scientists, engineers, and administrators from the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea, the fusion reactor is expected to reach completion within ten years.
The University of Pittsburgh approved $120 million in capital projects in April of 2008. A $64 million, 27,000-sf mezzanine level will be built in Benedum Hall at the Swanson School of Engineering housing classrooms, labs, and upgraded HVAC systems. A $21 million project will add a 38,000-sf wing to the Falk Laboratory School and renovate 26,000-sf in the existing Falk facility.
