Covance Laboratories will relocate its immunochemistry group from Vienna, Va., to a new laboratory under development at the Avion Tech Center III Park in Chantilly. Developer of the project is Biotech Services Group, the subsidiary of Scheer Partners that focuses on life science and biotech facilities. The new building will provide R&D labs and walk-in cold rooms in a 24,000-sf single-story structure.
Associates of Cape Cod Inc. (ACCI) is building a new 79,000-sf FDA-validated production facility for diagnostics in the Falmouth Technology Park. ACCI manufactures endotoxin diagnostic assays extracted from the blood of horseshoe crabs. Laboratories will feature state-of-the-art technology. The cleanroom production areas include Class 100 formulation and filling suites, accessible through airlocks. The production process and facilities will be fully validated in accordance with FDA cGMP requirements.
The Technology Commercialization Center, a $12-million project of the Illinois Medical District Commission, has been awarded to Knight Advanced Technology, the architecture/engineering subsidiary of Lester B. Knight & Associates. The 62,000-sf Center is envisioned as a “graduate” laboratory facility for biotechnology and other technology-based start-up companies that have outgrown an incubator laboratory setting. The project will be built at Chicago Technology Park.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has plans for a $500-million biomedical R&D complex at Janelia Farm in Ashburn. Bioinformatics, biomedical imaging, and gene protein research will be conducted at the facility, which will accommodate more than 300 scientists and support staff. Dormitories will provide accommodations for visiting researchers. Construction at the 281-acre site is scheduled to begin in 2003; completion is scheduled for late 2005.
Immunex Corporation broke ground in January 2001 on the Helix Project—a new $750-million research and technology center—on a 29-acre parcel of undeveloped industrial land in Seattle. The facility will consolidate Immunex’s Seattle employees and will accommodate approximately 1,700 employees. Phase I of the center totals 1.1 million gsf and is scheduled for completion in fall/winter 2003.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Oakland Scientific Facility expected to take delivery of a $33 million IBM supercomputer in December 2000. The Oakland facility, a 75,000-sf former Wells Fargo Bank building, has undergone an $11 million retrofit including a new glass facade, seismic upgrades, a new cooling system, and special security devices. The computers will occupy rows of refrigerator-size cabinets that fill the building's first two floors. The project has been developed by Encinal Broadway, headed by Peter Wang.
Genentech plans to double its R&D space with three new buildings at the company’s South San Francisco campus. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2001 on the 288,744-sf project, which will create a total of nearly 600,000 sf for research at the site. Genentech has several other construction projects under way or planned: a 60,000-sf building opening in March, with an accompanying 500-vehicle parking garage opening in May; 120,000-sf of office space at Building 6, which broke ground in late January; and a just-completed 112,000-sf office building.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Atlanta recently selected McCarthy of St. Louis to construct its $132-million Building 18, the Emerging Infections Diseases Laboratory. Construction is scheduled to begin in September 2001 at the CDC’s Roybal Campus. The new lab will provide approximately 310,500 gsf of space for 459 scientific personnel, and will be completed in two phases. Phase I, a six-story, 40,000-gsf structure, will provide dry lab space for 184 lab staff.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) consolidated headquarters and laboratory campus broke ground recently at White Oak, a base realignment and closure site formerly home to the Naval Laboratory campus. The FDA, currently housed in more than 40 buildings at 18 different locations in the Washington, D.C., region will use 130 acres of the 670-acre campus.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, based in Chevy Chase, Md., purchased the 281-acre Janelia Farm in December 2000 with plans for a large research campus on the property. Three office buildings and a Normandy-style mansion already exist at the site, which can support more than 2.5 million sf of space. The biomedical company is based in Chevy Chase, Md., where its headquarters will remain.
Biosquare, a $650-million biotech development, is under construction in Boston. Boston University and Boston University Medical Center are the developers of the project, which is being built in two phases. Phase one encompasses 1.2 million sf of space including 60,000 sf of space for animal testing, an in-house incinerator, and a 1,000-car parking garage. Phase one is nearing completion. Phase two will provide 1.3 million additional sf of space for labs and offices, a 240-room hotel, and an a 1,200-car parking garage.
The National Institutes of Health Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center, which broke ground in February 1999, opened in late August 2000. Spaulding & Slye was the developer of the fast-track $32-million, 82,500-sf facility, where researchers in immunology, virology, and HIV will work together toward developing an AIDs vaccine by 2007. The 10-story structure features laboratories, a high-tech education and conference center, cyber café, support spaces, and offices for principal investigators. For flexibility, an open lab plan with 11’ x 13’ space planning modules was chosen.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently awarded a $174-million construction contract for the Advanced Measurement Laboratory. The prime contractor is Clark/Gilford, a joint venture between The Clark Construction Group of Bethesda, Md., and Gilford Corporation of Beltsville, Md. HDR Architecture of Alexandria, Va., designed the 511,040-sf facility; completion is scheduled for 2004.
Sigma-Aldrich Corp. recently broke ground for its new fast-track $57-million Life Science Technology Center in downtown St. Louis. The project includes construction of a 133,000-sf lab building with three stories above grade and one below grade. Lab and office space will surround a three-story atrium in the center of the building. In addition, an attached one-story, 12,000-sf learning center with auditorium will be constructed.
Alpha Therapeutics Corporation has awarded a contract to Ware & Malcomb Architects of Woodland Hills, Calif., for the design of the tenant improvement methods validation development laboratory expansion. The project includes the design and build out of a full new methods development lab space located within the company’s Quality Control facility. Construction of the project will complete the company’s latest development of existing methods validation development facilities for their various pharmaceutical biological products.
