Operating Cost

Drexel University is initiating $6.6 million in energy efficiency upgrades at its Philadelphia campus. Funded by the state of Pennsylvania’s Campus Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF), the project will reduce energy consumption and emissions, upgrade five key buildings, increase comfort and safety in labs and classrooms, and lower overall operating costs. Upon completion, Drexel’s energy consumption will decrease by more than 25 percent in three science buildings and two mixed-use campus facilities which cumulatively account for more than 430,000 sf.

Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP) has relocated and consolidated three laboratories—Endocrine, Toxicology and Drug Monitoring, and the Proteomics Core Mass Spectrometry Development Lab (CMSL)—into a singular core mass spectrometry laboratory. The two-story, 65,000-gsf addition to the Superior Drive Support Center (SDSC) is 10 to 15 minutes from Mayo Clinic’s downtown Rochester, Minn., campus.

A new Centralized Research Support Facility (CRSF) at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has created a host of benefits for the university and its Animal Care Program, including almost $13 million in savings to date, with more savings expected when existing space is reassigned. The project could signal a paradigm shift as available research space shrinks, but consolidation/centralization requires significant operational and cultural shifts.

Value engineering (VE) can save money on a BSL-3 project without compromising facility operations, lifecycle costs, regulatory compliance, or biocontainment requirements; if managed correctly, VE is an opportunity to improve a project, not just a cost-cutting tactic.

High-performance buildings are designed with the innovative features and advanced technology necessary to sustain peak operating efficiency, but they frequently fail to live up to their full potential, due to a number of factors: inadequate staffing; a lack of correctly configured technology; and a lack of proper instruction, capabilities, and skill sets of employees. Incorporating a process of building optimization can prevent these shortcomings.

Because it’s expensive to heat and cool outdoor air drawn into a building, workspaces tend to be ventilated only enough to meet ASHRAE minimums or achieve a LEED credit. But air quality profoundly affects workers’ cognitive performance, and even modest increases in ventilation can yield productivity and health benefits that far exceed the cost, says Joseph Allen, assistant professor and director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Pfizer broke ground in late June of 2016 on the $350 million Global Biotechnology Center in China. Located in the Hangzhou Economic Development Area (HEDA), the facility will manufacture pharmaceutical biosimilars, which are drugs designed with similar active properties to existing licensed therapies. The project will feature a modular production facility created by GE Healthcare that utilizes flexible, single-use biomanufacturing technologies. The duration of construction will be 18 months with completion expected in early 2018.

JHL Biotech opened a biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in May of 2016 in Wuhan, China. Featuring single-use bioprocessing technologies, the cGMP facility utilizes GE Healthcare's prefabricated KUBio system to produce biosimilars and monoclonal antibodies for late–stage clinical trials and commercial supply. The project was completed in just 18 months.

Mercy Health began construction in September of 2016 on a $271 million medical center in Muskegon, Mich. Designed by HGA Architects and Engineers to increase patient care efficiencies, the nine-story, 267-bed tower will consolidate inpatient services in a single location as well as housing an emergency department, a trauma center, and surgical suites. In the design process, two-dimensional modeling of each floor progressed to architectural designs and then to full-scale models to enhance the success of lean operational strategies.

By consolidating 14 scientific cores under one organizational umbrella, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has increased the visibility of cores across its campus, improved operational efficiency, and established a system of internal and external review, all while coming in under budget.

A remarkable evolution in the tools and methods of research is driving a host of trends in laboratory planning and design, including fewer permanently assigned offices, a decided prioritization of computational over “wet” space, and an emphasis on core facilities and shared equipment, according to a survey of research organizations and A/E/C firms conducted by Tradeline.

Money is becoming available for new construction and major renovations of college and university science buildings, but experts and observers in the industry see a major planning flaw in many of these projects: They are moving forward with no assessment as to whether or not owners have the skilled staff to operate and maintain what is being planned, or the financial resources to hire the staff that will be needed. That is a recipe for institutional embarrassment.

Universities, independent research institutes, and medical centers looking to improve the quality of their research, recruit and retain staff, and compete for funding increasingly focus their attention on establishing core facilities, despite some concerns in the scientific community about where these core facilities are located and possible conflicts between the research groups vying to use them. Almost regardless of discipline, researchers chafe under budgetary constraints—no small problem in the “publish or perish” environment of biomedicine. The tools necessary for even the most basic of protocols are expensive, with cutting-edge equipment running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is hardly surprising that new or remodeled facilities benefit from centralizing certain shared resources, such as imaging instruments, microscopy, cold storage, and animal facilities. But those resistant to the concept cite reservations about establishing accountability, prioritizing purchases, and ensuring equitable access. Do the benefits of core facilities outweigh these potential pitfalls?  

Specialized biomedical core facilities accelerate scientific research and make the most of funding resources, but it takes considerable expertise in both technology and business to attain these results. To ensure the centralized model provides the most productive and cost-effective support to researchers, University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto has assembled a toolkit of proven strategies and operating principles. The foremost requirements are a robust knowledge base in science and technology and a strong business orientation. 

A total systems approach to space management is allowing the University of Michigan Medical School to make better-informed and more objective decisions in planning for growth within 4 million gsf of existing facilities in Ann Arbor, Mich. The space management system—which continues to evolve and expand since its deployment in 2008, and recently became a University best practice—increased annual space productivity by 4.18 percent and generates an estimated yearly savings of $300,000 through improved operational efficiencies.