Genomics

The University of Rhode Island (URI) broke ground in March 2007 on the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences in Kingston, R.I. Funded in part by a $1 million donation from Amgen, the facility will serve as a major center of education and research that will drive economic development in the state's growing biotechnology industry. The architect for the center is Payette Associates of Boston, and Providence-based Gilbane Building Co. will serve as the construction manager.

Scripps Florida is planning to construct its new 350,000-sf facility on the Florida Atlantic University John D. MacArthur Campus in Jupiter, Fla. Slated for completion in December 2008, the $18.6 million project will include three buildings. Building A will focus on chemistry, drug discovery, and translational research. Building B will focus on biotechnology, cells, genomes, and proteins, with an auditorium, cafeteria, and administrative offices. Building C will focus on biology and biomedical research.

The University of Florida opened the 280,000-sf Cancer & Genetics Research Complex in Gainesville in late fall of 2006. The $84.5 million facility contains a five-story research wing of the UF Shands Cancer Center and a six-story Genetics Institute wing. The building also houses the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research and a forensic anthropology lab, the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory.

Vietnam's Institute of Biotechnology inaugurated the country's first gene technology laboratory in Hanoi on March 31, 2006. Eighty percent of the facility's $3.6-million construction budget was spent on equipment including a protein sequence reader and a gene sequence reader. The lab consists of three synchronous facility groups engaged in research on gene branches, proteins, and biotechnology. Construction began on the facility in May 2001. The laboratory will continue to be upgraded until 2010 to meet international standards.

The University of Washington is nearing completion on construction of the new William H. Foege Building in Seattle. Providing a central home for the Department of Bioengineering, the 260,000-sf, $150-million facility broke ground in 2001.

The University of Toronto opened the 20,550-metre Terence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (CCBR) in January of 2006. Designed by a joint venture of Toronto's architectsAlliance and Stuttgart, Germany-based Behnisch, Behnisch and Partner, the 12-story building contains wet and dry laboratories, research offices, three seminar rooms, a six-story garden and atrium, and mechanical operations on the seventh floor. 

The University of California at Riverside is planning to construct the 110,000-sf New Genomics Building. Slated for completion by spring of 2008, the facility will provide the University's Genomics Institute with state-of-the-art research laboratories for faculty, researchers, and support staff. The design architect for the project is Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott (SBRA) working in association with RBB Architects of Los Angeles.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation broke ground in October 2005 on a new division headquarters facility in Houston. The project consists of an eight-story, 250,000-sf office plus 50,000-sf in two smaller buildings. The high technology facility will be constructed to meet all post-Sept. 11 federal building criteria by Mississippi-based W.G. Yates and Sons. The construction cost is approximately $54.1 million. Upon completion in two years, the headquarters will house 720 employees.