Research and Development

Merial has plans to relocate and consolidate its five major U.S. animal health operations to several sites in Georgia. A suburb of Atlanta will be selected for the company's North American headquarters, where 400 employees will be housed. The company's Athens, Ga., manufacturing and research facility will accommodate an additional 80 relocated R&D employees. The University of Georgia will be the site of a planned pilot vaccine development facility, where Merial would manufacture both animal and human vaccines.

U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has awarded a contract for comprehensive engineering design and construction services to a team comprised of San Francisco-based URS Corporation, Burns & Roe and Technical Design. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract runs for five years, with five option years, and has a potential value of $25 million per year.

National Institutes of Health has three major projects under construction. The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center is a $360 million, 600,000-gsf replacement hospital plus an additional 850,000 sf of research labs. The Washington office of Portland, Ore.-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca designed the "clinical research model" building, with labs close to patient care units. Completion is anticipated in December 2002.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Office of Real Estate has plans for a $46-million, 185,000-sf building at a 7.5-acre site in Cambridge next to MIT and Technology Square. The project will gut an historic 1830s 135,000-sf building and build a new five-story, 50,000-sf adjacent structure with plans to lease the entire lab/office facility to a biotechnology company. Surface parking for 272 vehicles is included in the plan. Completion is anticipated in 2002. The project construction manager is Barr & Barr.

EMC Corp. has plans for a $200 million, 1,166,000 gsf complex at a 144-acre site in northeastern Bellingham. A total of 486,000 sf of R&D space will be housed in three 162,000-sf two-story buildings. A 100,000-sf accessory building will also be constructed that may be used for training, day care, wastewater treatment, and/or an athletic center. Space to accommodate 3,500 vehicles is also planned. Construction is scheduled for completion in November 2003.

The National Fire and Protection Agency (NFPA) has partnered with Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to build a set of Consensus Codes--a new set of codes for the built environment. Their goal is to provide safety officials with a new consistent and compatible set of codes by the year 2003. As part of the Consensus Code project NFPA also plans to devise a NFPA Building Code.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 10-year building and renovation plans for the CDC's two main Atlanta campuses are expected to cost approximately $1.1 billion. Five new laboratories and four lab renovations, plus renovations to a number of lab support buildings, are included in the plan. A substantial increase for the CDC's 2001 facilities budget has been approved by the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Approval of the new budget would speed completion of the project.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 10-year building and renovation plans for the CDC's two main Atlanta campuses are expected to cost approximately $1.1 billion. Five new laboratories and four lab renovations, plus renovations to a number of lab support buildings, are included in the plan. A substantial increase for the CDC's 2001 facilities budget has been approved by the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Approval of the new budget would speed completion of the project.

University of California, San Francisco's Board of Regents approved plans for the second and third buildings at its new Mission Bay campus. The $58 million Campus Community Center, designed by Legoretta Arquitectos in Mexico City, is a 158,000-gsf structure that will serve as the hub of UCSF services for students, faculty, staff, and the general public. MBT Architecture of San Francisco will work with Legorreta on the facility.

University of Texas has plans for a new $19 million research building at its Health Science Center (HSC) in San Antonio. The HSC has a $131.5 million major building campaign scheduled through 2006 that will include one adult cancer research building and one building for pediatric cancer research.

Wellcome Trust, based in London, sent two officials to examine Philadelphia's scientific resources as the company searches for a site to build a planned $400 million genome research park. The final site decision has not yet been made.

Qiagen, a biotech company based in the Netherlands, has plans to build a 190,000-sf R&D facility on 18 acres in Germantown. The company plans to employ more than 200 people at the new facility, which was scheduled to break ground in late March 2000.

Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., based in Cambridge, is examining sites in the city to build a 200,000-sf lab and office complex, in spite of an 18-month Cambridge building moratorium currently in effect.

San Jose State University's Duncan Hall, which houses the chemistry department, will be enhanced with new state-of-the-art labs for instruction and research thanks to a $500,000 grant to the chemistry department from the Los Angeles-based W.M. Keck Foundation. The new facility in Duncan Hall will be called the W.M. Keck Core Facility for Structure and Surface Analysis.

North Carolina State University, in an alliance with Lucent Technologies, is building a new 120,000-sf facility for fiber optics applications research at the university's Centennial Campus. The Lucent Building, scheduled to open in spring 2000, will house 500 employees of the Lucent Technologies Optical Networking Group.