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October 28, 2008
- Labs endure Ike
- FDA nanotech regs
- Athenaeum awards
- LEED updates
Gulf labs weather Hurricane Ike
Lab facilities on the Gulf Coast are regrouping after being lashed by Hurricane Ike in September. Flooding on Galveston Island and coastal Texas was severe, with total U.S. damage estimated at $27 billion. The Univ. of Texas Medical Branch BSL-4 facilities in Galveston (Shope Lab and Galveston National Laboratory) rode out the storm safely, according to Edwin Cordes of Perkins+Will, Houston, which designed both buildings. “Both labs have significant backup systems whch operated flawlessly.” John Donaho of UTMB, Galveston, reports the ARC (Animal Resources Center) building, a vivarium, experienced significant electrical system damage and was still not open for research as of mid-October, though animals were being cared for with the aid of emergency equipment. Many other UTMB labs were set to resume limited research use by the end of October. The Texas Medical Center, Houston, weathered the storm well, according to Wendy Burke of Linbeck, a construction firm with multiple clients in the TMC.
The contrast with major flood damage from Tropical Storm Allison was marked, Burke says. “The headline is that all the preparation work done in response to Allison worked. It was a textbook case study in damage-prevention.”
The Univ. of Texas, Medical Branch
SOURCE: Univ. of Texas
FDA mulls nanotech action
The FDA met on Sept. 8 in Rockville, Md., to solicit comments regarding oversight of nanotech materials, which are widely used in cosmetics and other consumer products, from sporting goods to medical devices. A similar meeting was held in the fall of 2006, but did not produce regulatory action regarding nanoparticles. Detractors maintain that nanotech materials have not been well-studied enough to justify such widespread usage. The meeting came on the heels of the August formation of an internal FDA Nanotechnology Task Force, charged with determining regulatory approaches. Initial findings are to be presented to the FDA’s Acting Commissioner no later than June 2009.
More information is available at FDA’s Web site
SOURCE: U.S. Food & Drug Administration
Labs take Athenaeum honors
Two laboratory buildings have been honored by the Chicago Athenaeum in the annual American Architecture Awards program. Among many other types of facilities, the labs recognized include Harvard Univ.’s Northwest Science Building, Cambridge, Mass., designed by SOM, and the Univ. of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks, designed by Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc. and GDM Inc. The latter project includes both exhibition and laboratory space.
www.chi-athenaeum.org/archawards/2008/index.html
SOURCE: The Chicago Athenaeum
LEED update moves forward
The U.S. Green Building Council intends to roll out a new version of the LEED next year, intended to make the sustainability standard less of a “one size fits all” proposition. The new version will feature customized regional credits, a new weighting of certification criteria, and more consistency between different construction types. The credit weighting is designed to encourage users to make choices that will have the greatest impact on overall sustainability, instead of considering all credits to be of equivalent weight. The regionalization recognizes that different areas have different needs (for instance, water conservation needs). In addition, the LEED AP exam will be revised for 2009, though existing APs will not be required to retake the exam.
U.S. Green Building Council
SOURCE: U.S. Green Building Council
September 11, 2008
- R&D park progress
- Miami bioscience push
- Outsourcing LEED
- Bell Labs finds savior
Massachusetts research park moves forward
A new research-oriented real estate development will be created in Grafton, Mass., next to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts Univ. The Grafton Science Park, a 43-hectare office, research and manufacturing site, will be a joint project of California-based BioRealty Inc. and JM Holdings Inc. The Cummings School will build a 3,530-m2 lab as one of the initial buildings at the site; the facility will house Tufts’ BSL-3 Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, which is due to be finished early next year.
Read more here.
SOURCE: Tufts Univ.
Univ. of Miami building science park
The 3-hectare Univ. of Miami Life Science Park is now in the design phase, with up to 130,064 m2 of translational research facilities anticipated. Adjacent to the university’s Miller School of Medicine, the park is intended to support both basic and applied research, as well as commercial collaboration. Possible tenants include existing university research institutes, private biotech and life sciences firms, and most or all of the school’s existing startup biotech companies.
Read more here.
SOURCE: Miami Today News
Green Building Council to outsource LEED administration
The U.S. Green Building council has announced that it will outsource the LEED certification process to the Green Building Certification Institute, which already administers the LEED accredited professional program. Beginning in January 2009, projects in line for registration will start being channeled through the GBCI rather than the USGBC. The GBCI says it will educate independent, accredited “certification bodies” regarding how to certify LEED projects. The certifiers will be firms registered through ISO, but will contract with individual GBCI-approved assessors to perform the actual certification analysis.
Read more here.
SOURCE: Environmental News Network
Bell Labs building up for adaptive reuse
The fate of the historic Bell Laboratories campus in Holmdel, N.J., has been up in the air for months. Now, Somerset Development of Lakewood, N.J., has announced its desire to turn the 185,806-m2 building into a mixed-use community. The plan would encompass retailing on the main floor, with residential and office units above. About 800 residential units and 12,077 m2 of retail space are proposed. Alcatel-Lucent, the current owner of the property, has apparently inked a deal with Somerset but has not disclosed the terms of the transaction.
Read more here www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/abandoned_bell_labs_could_make.html
SOURCE: NJ.com
August 14, 2008
- Biocontainment laws
- Princeton engineering
- Minnesota R&D park
- Three new PNNL labs
Senators propose biocontainment oversight
Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Richard M. Burr (R-NC) have proposed the Select Agent Program and Biosafety Program Improvement Act of 2008 (S3127). This bill would reauthorize the Select Agent Program and improve oversight at biocontainment labs, which have been under scrutiny by the GAO. The bill would change the list of regulated pathogens, adding genetically-engineered strains. New safety and training standards would also be included, as would a better incident-reporting system. The National Academy of Sciences would be directed to conduct a review to see whether Select Agent Program regulations pose an obstacle to international research collaboration.
www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-3127
SOURCE: GovTrack.us
Major gift for engineering at Princeton
Gerhard R. Andlinger, an investment manager and a Princeton Univ. alumnus, has given the university a $100 million gift to establish a new engineering center. Issues of energy and the environment, including global climate change, will be the focus of the new initiative, which will be accompanied by at least $300 million in investments by Princeton itself. The new Gerhard R. Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment will be housed in a yet-to-be designed, state-of-the-art lab building. Funds will also allow the creation of multiple new faculty positions, as well as endowed funds for research and outreach. A construction schedule has not yet been announced.
www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S21/48/54G75/index.xml?section=topstories
SOURCE: Princeton Univ.
Minnesota research park moves forward
Tower Investments LLC, a real estate firm, is developing the 81-hectare BioBusiness Park at Elk Run in Pine Island, Minn. The park, about 15 minutes from Rochester, is the initial section of the master-planned 941-hectare mixed-use Elk Run development. The first facility in the BioBusiness park will be a 3,716-m2 Biotechnology Center, an R&D and manufacturing facility to support research institutions and startups. The building is designed to be suitable for Phase I clinical trials, product development and manufacturing; Phase II and III support; technology development; early-phase commercialization; and related biotech functions. Perkins+Will, Minneapolis, is the architect; the contractor is PCL Construction Services, also of Minneapolis.
www.elkrun.info/biotech
SOURCE: Tower Investments
Three new labs for PNNL
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., is building a new Physical Sciences Facility. The 18,580-m2, $106 million facility will replace existing labs and offices at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which must be vacated by 2011 due to environmental cleanup mandates. The new facility will have areas devoted to radiation detection, materials science/technology, and nuclear and chemical weapons compliance testing. Advanced physical research space, including high-bay space, will be included. The three-building facility is being designed by Flad & Associates, Madison, Wis., and built by a joint venture team of Lydig Construction Inc., Spokane, and George Grant Inc., Richland. Completion is scheduled for 2011. Breaking ground in June 2008 were a 6,782-m2 Biological Sciences Facility and a 6,968-m2 Computational Sciences Facility. Both will be owned by Cowperwood Co., a New York City real estate developer, and leased to Battelle, which runs PNNL on a Dept. of Energy contract. KMD Architects, San Francisco, will design the buildings, which will be constructed by D.E. Harvey Builders, Houston. Completion is scheduled for late 2009.
www.pnl.gov/news/release.asp?id=313
SOURCE: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
July 17, 2008
- California commits to stem cell facilities
- South Lake Union R&D complex expands
- What price green?
- Google commits to NASA site
California commits to stem cell facilities
California’s oversight agency for stem cell research, authorized in a 2004 proposition, has announced that it will allocate $217 million to build stem cell labs in various locations throughout the state. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is distributing funds among 12 institutions that are also kicking in a combined $560 million of their own to get the labs off the ground. Up to 55,742 m2 of facilities will be created within the next two years, including a 6,875-m2 lab at the Univ. of California-San Francisco (pictured). Other institutions involved in the building push include Stanford Univ; the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine; the Univ. of California campuses at Irvine, Davis, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Merced and Santa Barbara; the Buck Institute for Age Research; and the Univ. of Southern California.
www.cirm.ca.gov/press/pdf/2008/05-07-08.pdf
SOURCE: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
South Lake Union R&D complex expands
Two new facilities totaling 23,783 m2 have been completed in Seattle’s South Lake Union mixed-use neighborhood. The labs represent the second phase of a research hub being created by the Univ. of Washington School of Medicine, and will accommodate ~950 researchers and affiliated staff. Several UW Medicine groups are co-locating for the first time, including groups focused on stem cell and regenerative medicine, lung biology, diabetes, obesity, and a proposed mitochondria and metabolism center. Phase 1 includes a lab that opened in 2005, and an adaptive reuse project, the Rosen Building. UW Medicine has an option for a third phase in South Lake Union, totaling up to 33,910 m2; master planning for this site will begin this summer. The Phase II project team included developer Vulcan Inc., architect Perkins+Will, and general contractor Sellen Construction.
www.vulcanrealestate.com
SOURCE: Vulcan Real Estate
What price green?
Like multiple other municipalities, the city of San Francisco is contemplating tougher building codes to promote sustainability. A recent analysis, however, indicates that the proposed standards might take a big bite out of the city’s economy, with estimated negative impact ranging from $30 million to $700 million during the next 20 years. A city agency’s analysis speculates that the code changes would raise housing prices and commercial rents, slow down construction rates, and prompt businesses to locate elsewhere. The report proposes a “carbon-tax” alternative, with fees based on companies’ energy usage.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/BAPA10R7K6.DTL
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle
Google commits to NASA site
Internet search leader Google Inc. has signed a 40-year agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a high-tech R&D campus at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. Google will develop as much as 111,484 m2 of facilities, including offices and labs, on about 17 hectares of NASA’s property. Construction should begin in 2013, with a second phase starting in 2018 and a third in 2022. Google and NASA have an existing partnership dating to 2005, including delivery of high-resolution images through the Google Moon program and a NASA layer as part of the Google Earth mapping application.
www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2008/08_51AR.html
June 12, 2008
- Architecture billings take bumpy ride
- Historic Bell Labs in limbo
- USGBC opens LEED 2009 for comment
- Labs score with N.Y. AIA
Architecture billings take bumpy ride
The monthly Architecture Billings Index of the American Institute of Architects dropped to its lowest level ever in March, then rebounded a bit in April. The leading economic indicator of construction activity is based on surveys of member firms and shows an approximate nine to 12-month lag between architecture billings and construction spending. The rating in March was 39.7, following a steep 9-point decline in February, but rose to 45.5 in April. (Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The inquiries for new projects score in March was 48.0, also the lowest mark for the survey since its inception in 1995, but rose to 53.9 in April. The institutional sector, currently the mainstay of lab construction, remained in positive territory at 50.8 in March and 50.4 in April. In both months, the Southern region showed the strongest index results, followed by the Northeast.
www.aia.org/econ_abi
SOURCE: American Institute of Architects
Historic Bell Labs in limbo
The fate of the Bell Labs building in Holmdel, N.J., one of the most celebrated research facilities ever built, is the subject of intensive debate. Designed by Eero Saarinen and opened nearly 50 years ago, the lab has been empty for years and is now owned by Alcatel-Lucent. The massive facility encompasses 175,515 m2 on a 191-hectare campus, and was the subject of a charrette organized by the group Preservation New Jersey and affiliated organizations in April. Suggested adaptive uses included a healthcare center, a multi-university graduate center, a high-tech center, an updated R&D center, or a mixed-use complex. Residential uses are also contemplated but not favored because condos would generate less revenue. Previous development deals have collapsed, and the site’s future remains uncertain.
Click to learn more
SOURCE: The New York Times
USGBC opens LEED 2009 for comment
LEED 2009, a new version of the U.S. Green Building Council’s well-accepted environmental rating and certification system for buildings, Leadership in Energy & Efficient Design, is now open for public comment through June 22. According to Scot Horst, chair of the volunteer LEED steering committee, proposed changes include transparent weightings of credits so the highest-priority credits achieve the most points; a new mechanism for incorporating bioregional credits; and a more nimble framework that supports rapid response to emerging environmental and human health issues. LEED 2009, coupled with an expanded third-party certification program and significant enhancements to LEED Online, make up a multifaceted initiative referred to as LEED v. 3.0.
www.usgbc.org
SOURCE: U.S. Green Building Consortium
Labs score with N.Y. AIA
The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects has honored two lab facilities with design awards. A Merit Award in the architecture category went to Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects LLP, New York City, for Skirkanich Hall, an advanced bioengineering lab at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The $32 million facility was completed in 2007 and is part of a major science upgrade plan at the university. Toshiko Mori Architect, New York City, received a Project Honor Award for the Syracuse (N.Y.) Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. The building is part of a series of state-funded research centers focused on various areas of scientific concentration, as well as economic development.
www.aiany.org/awards/
SOURCE: American Institute of Architects, New York chapter
May 8, 2008
- DOE ponders isotope site
- Biopark will add to St. Louis momentum
- Academic institute joins Florida bandwagon
- South Pole station completed
DOE ponders isotope site
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill., and Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, are competing to be the site of a new $550 million rare-isotope lab. The U.S. Dept. of Energy has approved funding for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), which will expand a network of isotope facilities at the DOE national labs at Idaho, Brookhaven, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge.
The new facility will take advantage of significant improvement made at Argonne to the performance of superconducting niobium cavities, such as the triple-spoke cavity pictured here. The new cavities can operate at lower temperatures and at higher magnetic fields than previous designs.
Argonne and Michigan State are vying to host the facility individually after earlier cooperation efforts aimed at accommodating the work in existing nuclear physics buildings broke down. The FRIB will be a key to both basic research efforts and the production of materials for medical use. Both institutions have vowed to continue collaborative research no matter who gets the building. A site decision by DOE is anticipated this fall, with a tentative construction start in 2011.
www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2008/PHY080208.html
Biopark will add to St. Louis momentum
St. Louis, home to a burgeoning life sciences development corridor, will get additional research capacity in the form of a new lab/office development by Hanover, Md.-based Wexford Science+Technology. The BioResearch and Development Growth Park at Danforth Center will launch near the existing Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in suburban Creve Coeur. Construction is underway on the first of three facilities: a 10,963 m2, multi-tenant, post-incubation, wet lab and office building. Staying near the Danforth Center and its related business incubators was mentioned as a priority by Wexford president James R. Berens:
“In 2007 it became clear that the companies in the Nidus Center and the Center for Emerging Technologies needed larger lab and office space and were interested in remaining close to the Danforth Center, where these companies currently receive valuable scientific counsel and access to state-of-the-art facilities.”
The first building will cost about $36 million and will house six or more companies; it should be finished during the first quarter of 2009. The state of Missouri is supporting the project through $1 million in tax credits. The team for the first facility includes Mackey Mitchell Associates, Gaudreau Inc., and Tarlton Corp.
www.wexfordequities.com/About-Us/Press-Release-10055.news
SOURCE: Wexford Science+Technology
Academic institute joins Florida bandwagon
Oregon Health & Science Univ., Portland, has announced that it will build a new facility for its Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The building, estimated to be 12,077 m2, will be created with $60 million in economic development funds from the state of Florida and matching funds from the city of Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County and developers. The city is also kicking in $53 million for infrastructure development at the site, which is near the new Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. The OHSU institute will occupy temporary space in TPI’s new research building beginning late this year or early next year. Research will focus on vaccine development, with funding from the National Institutes of Health. A new scientific staff will be recruited, which will collaborate with researchers from the existing OHSU vaccine institute facility in Beaverton, Ore. The facility development deal is yet to be finalized.
www.ohsu.edu/vgtiflorida/
SOURCE: Oregon Health & Science Univ.
South Pole station completed
The U.S. has dedicated the new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station: its third research installation at the pole since 1957. The $153 million, 6,039 m2 facility provides a dramatic technological upgrade from the previous 1975 station, according to the National Science Foundation, which coordinates the U.S. Antarctic Program. The building is elevated over the glacial tundra by 36 hydraulic-jack columns, allowing it to be raised in 25-cm increments and adding decades to its useful life. (Previous facilities have been progressively covered over by snow and ice.) The new installation is designed to function as a “science city,” providing complete work and life needs for ~150 people during the three-month austral summer and 50 people during the remaining nine months. Ferraro Choi and Associates, Honolulu, was the principal architect; Raytheon Polar Services was the primary contractor.
www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/livingsouthpole/station_new.jsp
SOURCE: National Science Foundation
April 10, 2008
- HudsonAlpha lab to be campus cornerstone
- I2SL announces new awards program
- AIA Billings Index tumbles
- Group seeks international green standard
- R&D wants your innovation
- Labs grab awards
- Hot-lab scientist pens scary scenario
HudsonAlpha lab to be campus cornerstone
The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville, Ala., will celebrate its grand opening in late April, marking a key step for the 60.7-hectare Cummings Research Park Biotech Campus. HAIB, an independent biotech organization, will operate a new 25,084-m2, $60 million building focused on research in human health. The nonprofit is also devoted to stimulating economic development and inspiring the state’s youth to seek science careers. HAIB is already leasing space to 12 for-profit companies and hopes the Huntsville site will eventually accommodate ~900 people. Designed by Cooper Carry, the new lab offers its tenants facilities for tissue culture, incubation, wet chemistry, freezer farms, glasswashing, sterilization, and vivarium cage washing, as well as office and common areas. www.hudsonalpha.org
SOURCE: HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
I2SL announces new awards program
I2SL, sponsor of the annual Labs21 conference, has initiated the Go Beyond Awards, a new program. In cooperation with R&D Magazine, the awards will honor individuals, projects, and organizations that champion the principles of Labs21 and go beyond the status quo for lab facility sustainability. Labs21, a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Dept. of Energy, is dedicated to fostering the creation and operation of “greener” laboratory buildings. Go Beyond Awards nominations are due by June 30.
www.i2sl.org/labs21/conference/awards.html
SOURCE: I2SL
AIA Billings Index tumbles
The monthly Architectural Billings Index, an American Institute of Architects program considered a leading economic indicator of nonresidential construction activity, dropped nearly 9 points in February. The index rating was 41.8, the lowest level since October 2001 and down dramatically from January’s 50.7 mark. (Any score over 50 indicates an increase in billings). The institutional sector remains a bright spot, including academia, healthcare and government buildings—matching the sector where most lab construction is currently occurring. Regional averages were 51.5 for the Northeast, 48.3 for the South, 46.3 for the West, and 42.6 for the Midwest. Indexes are derived from analysis of federal construction stats and a monthy survey sent to a panel of AIA member-owned firms.
www.aia.org/release_031908_abi
SOURCE: American Institute of Architects
Group seeks international green standard
Frustrated with the worldwide proliferation of sustainability rating systems for buildings, a group of construction and property leaders in mid-March called for the passage of a comprehensive global index for comparison, measurement and benchmarking. The meeting was chaired by the British Property Foundation and included commercial representatives from the U.K., Japan, the U.S., Germany, Italy, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. A key driver of the initiative is the property owners’ need to assign accurate values to their assets. Leaders argue that an international commercial agreement would bring coherence to the development of sustainability regulations worldwide, rather than the current hodgepodge of building-sustainability-rating systems.
http://www.bpf.org.uk/newsroom/pressreleases/document/23344/leaders-agree-plan-for-global-green-buildings-standard
SOURCE: New Civil Engineer
R&D wants your innovation
Do you have a new laboratory product that breaks new technological ground? Do you believe it could have a major impact on the way researchers and other laboratory professionals get the job done? R&D Magazine can help you see how it measures up against other new high-technology products in the annual R&D 100 Awards, which for 45 years has been helping companies boost awareness of their new products as they enter the marketplace. The R&D Awards attracts hundreds of participants each year, and earning an award is a mark of excellence well known to industry, government and academia.
For details, visit our R&D 100 Awards page at: http://www.rdmag.com/awards.aspx
Labs grab awards
The Structural Biology Research Center of the Hauptman-Woodward Institute, Buffalo, N.Y., has received a National Award of Merit from the Society of American Registered Architects; Cannon Design was the architect. The facility previously won a First Award: New Construction citation from the Buffalo/Western New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
http://sararchitects.org/Documents/PDAPRESS07.pdf.
The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council announced that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Molecular Foundry, Berkeley, Calif., received first place in the High Performance Buildings category of the group’s Beyond Green 2007 awards program. SmighGroup Inc. designed the building.
Sustainable Buildings Industry Council: www.sbicouncil.org
SOURCE: Sustainable Buildings Industry Council
Hot-lab scientist pens scary scenario
Paul Boor, a pathologist currently on staff at the Univ. of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, apparently likes his scientific mysteries mixed with the literary kind. Boor recently published his first novel, “The Blood Notes of Peter Mallow”: a thriller set in UT’s Galveston-based BSL-4 lab. The plot involves an imaginative, and frightening, take on the inner workings of government-funded biocontainment labs, and the psychology of those employed there. Boor, an NIH-funded researcher, has been publishing short stories since 1990, and reportedly has two other science-based thrillers nearing publication.
www.paulboor.com
SOURCE: PaulBoor.com
March 13, 2008
- Branching out from Boston
- Gears in motion for New Orleans cancer research site
- Hong Kong science building takes inspiration from periodic table
- “Green building” standard advances
- Architectural business, billings soften
- Labs honored with awards
- Universities ponder holistic green ratings
- Lisbon Research and Clinical Center design announced
- Design firm consolidation continues
Branching out from Boston
Science and technology firms appear to be heading to the suburbs of Boston/Cambridge, as space for new mixed-use developments in the metropolitan area becomes scarce and rental rates remain high. The Worcester area and Route 495 are poised as the next hot zone, boosted by the presence of the Univ. of Massachusetts Medical School campus.
The 12-acre mixed-use Gateway Park is now being built as a joint venture by Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Worcester Business Development Corp. Last year, the park’s first building—the $50 million Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center—opened for business and is now fully occupied. Key tenants include Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (a nonprofit incubator) and RXi Pharmaceuticals.
Two more lab buildings are slated for development this year, encompassing ~22,300 m2, with up to five life sciences buildings ultimately projected. Condos and retailing are also on tap.
www.wpi.edu/News/Perspectives/westgrowth.html
SOURCE: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Gears in motion for New Orleans cancer research site
After years of talking, planning and dreaming, the first steps have been taken toward building a cancer center that is designed to be nothing less than a scientific and economic mainstay of New Orleans' post-Katrina economy.
"Test piles are going. Great things are happening," says Steven Moye, president of the organization behind the Louisiana Cancer Research Center at Tulane and South Claiborne avenues.
The health sciences centers of Louisiana State and Tulane universities, as well as Xavier Univ., are partners in the project, which is envisioned as a center for treatment, teaching and research as well as an economic engine for the city's renaissance.
The 10-story building will have about 16,258 m2 of work space, Moye says, and about 300 people are expected to be employed there when the center opens in 2010.
The first test piles were driven two weeks ago, and groundbreaking is expected to occur Oct. 1.
SOURCE: The Times-Picayune
Hong Kong science building takes inspiration from periodic table
Completed in 2006, Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong Centralised Science Laboratories Building has an unmistakable profile. Completed in December 2006 from a design by architect RMJM Hillier, inspiration for the colored façade derived from the Periodic Table of Elements, stating the importance of science to mankind. At the same time its environmental function of regulating the ambient and solar heat gain increases the thermal comfort of the interior space. The double glazing units, comprised of glass, argon and laminated panes with color films have an insulating and energy saving effect.
This six storey structure acts as a visual landmark that is architecturally sensitive to the campus context. The laboratory facilities sit on a 2,600 m2 footprint on a steeply sloping site overlooking Tolo Harbor. The commission for the Postgraduate Research Lab consists of 11,200 m2 of purpose built, high risk research laboratory facilities for the 11 various science departments of the Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong.
SOURCE: Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong
“Green building” standard advances
ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, has opened the second version of the new Proposed Standard 189.1, “Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings,” for public review through April 7.
The standard will provide minimum requirements for the design of high-performance facilities, including major renovation projects, addressing energy efficiency, atmospheric impact, sustainable sites, water-use efficiency, materials and resources, an indoor environmental quality. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council are cooperating in the development.
Applying the current version of 189.1P would lead to site energy savings of 10 to 41% over the newest version of ASHRAE Standard 90.1, including plug and process loads and all other energy consumption. Water savings of 35% vs. 90.1 are also forecast (for an office building).
www.ashrae.org/publicreviews
SOURCE: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers
Årchitectural business, billings soften
The ZweigWhite 15 (ZW15), a market-weighted index designed to track the performance of publicly traded architecture, engineering, construction, and environmental consulting firms, slowed to a 5% pace at the end of 2007 after reaching near-record levels earlier in the year. Jacobs Engineering Group, parent firm of lab planners Jacobs Consultancy, was the best-performing firm tracked by consultant ZweigWhite, with a 42.9% year-over-year revenue growth. www.zweigwhite.com/perspectives/perspective.asp?pageid=548
In related news, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) of the American Institute of Architects dropped steeply in January to 50.7, down from the 55.0 mark in December (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The index in the Northeast was much stronger than in other regions, at 63.0; the Midwest lagged with an index of 49.3. The monthly index is based on surveys of member-owned firms and is designed to be a leading economic indicator providing a 9- to 12-month glimpse into the future for nonresidential construction activity.
http://www.aia.org/econ_abi
SOURCES: ZweigWhite, American Institute of Architects
Labs honored with awards
Three lab buildings have received awards in the annual program run by the American Institute of Architects’ Chicago chapter—one of the largest AIA chapter awards programs.
The Merck Serono Headquarters and Research Center, Geneva, Switzerland, won a citation of merit in the Distinguished Building Award/Commercial category; the project consists of a city block encompassing multiple facilities. The design team included Murphy/Jahn Architects and the Swiss firm Burckhardt+Partner AG.
In the same competition, the Arizona State Univ. Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building, Tempe, received a Sustainable Design citation of merit. The building was designed by Perkins+Will with Dick & Fritsche Design Group.
Also honored in the Sustainable Design category was the Grinnell College Conard Environmental Research Area Education Center; Holabird & Root was the architect.
http://www.aiachicago.org/special_features/2007DEA/index.asp
SOURCE: American Institute of Architects
Universities ponder holistic green ratings
As ASHRAE offers the first standard for “high-performance green buildings,” 91 colleges and universities in North America are participating in the pilot phase of an academic-oriented sustainability rating system—an effort separate from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating program.
The system, called STARS (for sustainability tracking, assessment, and rating system), was developed by the Assn. for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Unlike LEED, which is primarily a single-building system, STARS considers an entire campus and evaluates social responsibility as well as environmental stewardship. Major categories to be measured include curriculum and research; operations; and administration and finance. Cooperating institutions range from large, doctorate-granting universities such as Arizona State and Iowa State to small community colleges.
http://www.aashe.org/stars/
SOURCE: Assn. for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
Lisbon Research and Clinical Center design announced
World cancer and neurosciences research and treatment received a boost last month when the Champalimaud Foundation presented the architectural drawings for its new Research Centre in Lisbon.
The foundation has commissioned the firm of Charles Correa Associates as Design Architect, in collaboration with RMJM Hillier as Laboratory and Clinical Design Architects, and Consiste as Architect of Record, for the design of a 50,000 m2 research facility and outpatient clinical care center.
The site is on an sweep of land where the Tagus River joins the Atlantic Ocean - the point from which Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama embarked. According to architects, the project will employ optimal energy and resource management and provide facilities for research in oncology, molecular biology, genetics, immunology, neurosciences and behavior, as well as post-graduate and doctorate programs, and the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and cancer patients.
SOURCE: Champalimaud Foundation
Design firm consolidation continues
The universe of architectural firms with a strong lab design presence continues to contract via mergers and acquisition. Leo A. Daly, Omaha, Neb., has recently made several moves to reorganize its team and strengthen its position in the science and technology design market. The firm has acquired Maynard/David Partnership, Arvada, Colo. Roger E. Maynard becomes a Daly vice president and director of laboratory planning; Victoria G. David is now a vice president and director of laboratory design. They have joined Daly’s existing office in Denver. Victor DeSantis, AIA, formerly with CUH2A, has joined the firm’s Los Angeles office as vice president and director of Daly’s national and regional Science+Technology market sector. S. Keith Bailey, AIA, LEED AP, previously with Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, has joined the Atlanta office as principal of Science+Technology and Higher Education sectors.
http://www.leoadaly.com/markets2.aspx?wpage=markets&loc=science&sec=overview
SOURCE: Leo A. Daly
February 14, 2008
- India joins hot-lab boom
- Clients push for sustainability
- Social sciences, humanities research center joins Stanford
- Commercial construction remains bright spot
- Labs21 seeks speakers
- Connecticut mandates “green” design
- AIA, ASHRAE launch sustainability campaigns
- Forensics research finds Texas home
India joins hot-lab boom
High-containment lab construction is drawing scrutiny in the U.S., with both BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs under review by the federal government. But America is far from the only country that’s boosting its bio-safety lab infrastructure.
BSL-3 labs are not comprehensively tracked internationally, but information on BSL-4 construction indicates that India intends to make a significant investment in the hottest of hot labs. A new research facility in Andhra Pradesh, near the existing Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, will support the national Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR); validation for the $25 million lab is expected to be complete by 2010. It is the nation’s first high-containment lab for work with human diseases, augmenting an existing BSL-4 facility in Bhopal that concentrates on animal pathogens. CSIR recently validated BSL-3 facilities at five other sites; the country also has containment labs at a defense facility in Gwalior about which little public information is available. Currently, between 30 and 35 BSL-4 labs are known to exist or be under construction worldwide, with the U.S. accounting for the majority of facilities (11).
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Healthcare__Biotech/First_high-security_lab_on_infectious_organisms_in_India/articleshow/2448882.cms
SOURCE: The Economic Times
Columbia, Harvard plan advance
Two major new science campuses are moving closer to reality in the Ivy League. In December, Columbia Univ. won New York City Council approval for its 25-year plan to create a new academic district, including multiple science facilities, in the Manhattanville neighborhood north of the existing Morningside campus. The urban renewal project spans 6.9 hectares and won approval, in part, because Columbia promised to assist in a plan to build a new public secondary school in the neighborhood. Topping the science priority list is the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, focusing on interdisciplinary neuroscience.
http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/123_121907_columbia.shtml
Harvard Univ. is also moving forward with its plans to redevelop 80.9 hectares of property it owns in the Allston neighborhood, across the Charles River from the main campus. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has approved the university’s proposal to construct a science precinct as part of the project, beginning with a $1 billion, 54,800-m2, four-building complex designed by Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany. The facility’s primary occupant will be the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Though many aspects of the Allston plan are under re-evaluation since Drew Faust took over the president’s chair from Lawrence Summers, the science project has been green-lighted, and groundbreaking is anticipated this month. Like Columbia, Harvard promises community improvements to ease the neighborhood transition.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/03/easing_science_complex_anxiety_with_24m_pact/
SOURCES: New York City Council, Boston.com
Social sciences, humanities research center joins Stanford
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), known for sparking many of the most important works in the humanities and social sciences over the last five decades, has become part of Stanford Univ., effective Jan. 1, 2008.
The new arrangement brings the center's financial and administrative operations under Stanford management, while maintaining the independence of its core program: the annual fellowships for 40-some scholars from a variety of disciplines. The center now will be able to benefit from all that the university has to offer, including technology resources, support services, employee benefits, and strong academic and research programs.
In the past, the center was often mistaken as part of the university; its complex is on land leased from Stanford at 75 Alta Road near the Stanford Golf Course. But the center had no other formal connection to the university before the beginning of this year. It financed its own operation, and its chief executive, with its board of trustees, charted its own course.
The center will continue to have responsibility for its own financing and fundraising, but now these efforts will be helped by Stanford's Office of Development and by Stanford's management of the center's endowment. Stanford also will assume some of the center's operational costs. The center was established 54 years ago by the Ford Foundation to "foster knowledge that would help the human condition”.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/february13/casbs-021308.html
SOURCE: Stanford Univ.
Commercial construction remains bright spot
With worldwide stock markets jittery and daily laments regarding the sub-prime lending crisis, commercial nonresidential construction may provide a bright spot for the next few years. The Architecture Billings Index, derived monthly from a survey by the American Institute of Architects’ Economics & Market Research Group, recorded increased architectural firm billings for the 34th straight month in December 2007: the longest run in the history of the survey that began in 1995. Since architectural firm billings typically predate construction spending by a minimum of nine to 12 months, the AIA predicts the brisk market in nonresidential commercial construction has at least another year to go before any softening might occur.
“With positive conditions for architecture billings going back over two years, nonresidential construction is expected to be one of the sources of strength in an otherwise uneven economy, says AIA chief economist Kermit Baker.
For more coverage: http://www.aia.org/releases_default
Labs21 seeks speakers
The Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Dept. of Energy seeks presenters for its 2008 annual conference, which will be held Sept. 16-18, 2008, in San Jose, Calif. To submit an abstract (deadline March 7, 2008), visit: www.labs21century.gov/conf/call.htm
Connecticut mandates “green” design
The state of Connecticut has joined the growing ranks of governmental bodies mandating some level of sustainable construction for new projects. New legislation dictates that state facilities costing at least $5 million and with at least $2 million in state funding will have to meet a state standard designed to be at least as stringent as LEED silver-level certification. The also applies to renovated state facilities with $2 million in state funding.
A phase-in of the requirement will dictate that all new buildings with budgets over $5 million, regardless of ownership or funding source, will have to meet the standard after Jan. 1, 2009; renovations over $2 million must comply by Jan. 1, 2010.
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=36492&print=true.
AIA, ASHRAE launch sustainability campaigns
The American Institute of Architects has inaugurated “Walk the Walk”: a drive to educate, promote, and encourage green design among consumers, business owners, and architects. The initiative mirrors AIA’s stated goal of making all buildings carbon-neutral by 2030, and achieving a 50% reduction in fossil fuel use by buildings by 2010. Print and on-line advertising are planned, as well as a variety of public relations and “new media” efforts. AIA has already produced several “toolkits” to advance its emissions reduction goals and help designers and owners make other improvements in their projects’ sustainability profile.
http://www.aia.org/release_011508_WTW
In related news, another 2030 campaign, the Commercial Building Initiative, has been hatched by AIA, ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Alliance to Save Energy. The CBI is an umbrella organization under which the groups intend to cooperate in planning, coordinating, and implementing strategies to overhaul commercial buildings’ energy use in the next two decades. The goal is to promote “carbon neutral” facilities that would use 50 to 70%less energy than conventional buildings, with the remaining energy being supplied by renewable sources like solar panels and wind turbines.
http://buildings.lbl.gov/cbi/
Forensics research finds Texas home
Texas State University-San Marcos will locate its planned Forensic Research Facility on the 3,000-acre Freeman Ranch, a move announced Feb. 12. The Forensic Research Facility will be an open-air lab of approximately five acres surrounded by high security fencing. Within this lab, human bodies that have been donated to the facility will be allowed to decompose in a natural environment under the study of forensic anthropologists. The facility will be located in an area of Texas State’s Freeman Ranch that is away from all properties bordering the ranch. The closest bordering properties are approximately one mile away. It will be operational by late spring, Moore said. The facility, which will be an integral part of a graduate program in forensic anthropology at Texas State, will train scientists and assist law enforcement officials in establishing the time of death and the nature of death when bodies are found. It will also provide training in the identification of skeletal and dental remains. Workshops for law enforcement at the facility will include crime scene training, human identification, cadaver dog training and numerous other workshops.
http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2008/02/Forensics021208.html
SOURCE: Texas State Univ.
January 17, 2008
- Funding freeze-out stymies Fermilab
- Clients push for sustainability
- Emeryville research park progresses
- Arizona lab scores LEED Platinum
- Virginia Tech to remodel Norris Hall
- BIM makes inroads in building industry
- Iowa lab cited for excellence
Funding freeze-out stymies Fermilab
Fermilab Director Pier Oddone predicted the federal budget hammered out in a House-Senate compromise in late 2007 would be “devastating” to construction plans at Fermilab. Now, after the dust has settled, the results are in and they don’t look good.
The cuts will take effect three months into the fiscal year and will account for 12% of the proposed budget. Of Fermilab’s 1,940 employees, 200 will be laid off at the beginning of February, leaving remaining employees take two unpaid days off per month. That amounts to a 10% pay cut.
The lab has said it would reassign funding and stuff to keep core experiments running. However, several upcoming projects and side efforts will be axed.
Initially, the proposed 2008 budget called for $30 million to high-energy physics research. But despite committee approvals for this funding, overruns in the overall budget wreaked havoc later. Physics allocations to plunged to $688 million, a sizable drop. Of that amount Fermilab collected $320 million, well under a proposed $372 million for 2008 and $342 million from 2007.
What did this mean for Fermilab’s lab construction plans? In addition to instantly violating several international agreements the U.S. had with labs in other countries, construction on a new experiment involving neutrinos will be halted, as will Fermilab’s R&D work on the International Linear Collider, a proposed 20-mile-long particle accelerator being designed by an international coalition of physicists.
The ILC was slated to be located in Switzerland, Japan, or at Fermilab, although an official at Fermilab says the budget cut would now significantly lower the chance of it being built at Fermilab.
Tevatron, Fermilab’s particle accelerator and primary experiment, will be kept running, as well as a separate experiment involving neutrinos.
Fermilab is just one of several national labs negatively impact by the 2008 omnibus R&D funding package approved by Congress just before the holidays. But Fermilab is one of the hardest hit.
For regular updates on the lab’s changing plans, visit:
www.fnal.gov/pub/today/FY08budgetimpactonFermilab.html
SOURCES: Fermilab, Chicago Maroon, The Beacon News
Clients push for sustainability
A recent survey conducted by Autodesk Inc. and the American Institute of Architects indicates that clients are increasingly demanding sustainable design in their building projects. About 70% of the ~350 architects surveyed in the third annual “Green Index” report said owners and developers are now the primary drivers of green building. The primary reason clients are demanding green building methods is reduced operating costs. Some 90% of respondents said they are routinely incorporating sustainability practices, or expect to do so routinely by 2012—a significant increase from five years ago, when less than half of respondents said they were doing this. Nearly 90% of respondents reported receiving training or continuing education focused on green building. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of room for growth. Respondents said that, though clients often inquire about “green,” the commitment and follow-through is often anemic.
www.aia.org/release_110707_autodesk
Emeryville research park progresses
EmeryStation East, a new four-story spec lab building, is taking shape not far from Novartis/Chiron Corp.’s R&D facilities in Emeryville, Calif. Part of Wareham Development’s EmeryStation mixed-use community, the facility complements the existing EmeryStation North lab/office building, completed in 2001. It offers ~22,761 m2 of labs and offices for life, physical, and nano science research. The design includes efficient floor plates, a large elevated garden with spring-green glassed terraces, and a cost-saving co-generation system.
Tenants will include Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc., Amyris Biotechnologies, and the DoE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute, a six-institution partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. SmithGroup (San Francisco/Detroit) was the architect, with construction services by DPR, San Francisco. Also underway in the Bay Area, where research space is tight and rentals are brisk, are two spec labs by Alexandria Real Estate Equities: one in Mission Bay, one in South San Francisco.
www.emerystationeast.com
SOURCE: Wareham Development
Arizona lab scores LEED Platinum
The Applied Research and Development Building at Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, has joined an elite handful of labs that have achieved LEED Platinum, the highest ranking available in the U.S. Green Building Council’s sustainability rating system. The $25 million, 5,600-m2 facility scored 60 LEED points with features including sophisticated daylighting, shading, and glazing systems; low-pressure under-floor air distribution; a photovoltaic array that generates 20% of the building’s electricity; recycled materials; and use of reclaimed water. Burns Wald-Hopkins Architects of Tucson was the lead designer, in association with Hopkins Architects of London, U.K.; Arup of London and San Francisco was the MEP engineer. Kitchell Contractors, Phoenix, built the facility.
Some of the strategies used by the architect to earn ARD LEED Platinum certification include:
• The building is long and thin to maximize daylight and minimize electric lighting needs;
• A concrete structural frame stores heat in the winter and coolness in the summer;
• Low-pressure under-floor air distribution reduces fan sizes and energy requirements;
• A nearby field of photovoltaic panels donated by APS produces 160 kilowatts and produces more than 20 percent of the electricity for the building;
• Triple-glazed windows on the building’s north side minimize unwanted energy loss and gain;
• Automated shade controls regulate solar gain to maintain a comfortable gallery environment;
• These combined strategies reduce energy consumption by 89 percent versus typical buildings;
• Reclaimed water is used to flush toilets and irrigate the landscape;
• A third of the building is built of recycled materials—carpet, insulation, steel and aluminum;
• 92% of construction waste was diverted from the landfill;
• Pervious concrete in the parking allows storm water to drain through, recharging the aquifer.
www.tucsoncitizen.com/business/pressrelease/post/32
Virginia Tech to remodel Norris Hall
Norris Hall, site of the horrific shooting of 30 students and faculty last April, will house a consolidated Engineering Science and Mechanics department a well as a new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. Labs in the lower level, which were not part of the incident, will continue in operation, while the second-floor classroom wing that was the site of the violence will be remodeled. In addition to the Peace Studies center, the revamped space will offer new common facilities for the ESM department, and ESM will vacate some existing space in another building to make room for a new Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships. The $1 million plan, approved in December by university officials, will preserve important science space that is unduplicated elsewhere at Virginia Tech and allow consolidation of ESM functions that are currently scattered, while creating new facilities for anti-violence studies and activities.
www.vtnews.vt.edu/news_print/index.php?relyear=2007&itemno=753
BIM makes inroads in building industry
Building Information Modeling is being adopted by more and more building owners as a construction management system, according to a new survey. The eighth annual Construction Management Association of America/FMI Survey of Owners indicates that more than a third of the 200 respondents have used BIM on at least one building project. BIM, a shorthand term for the creation and coordinated use of a collection of digital information about a building project, is more popular with owners who are building 50 or more projects; who have large capital construction programs; and who typically hire construction managers or program managers, as opposed to the traditional general contractor.
http://cmaanet.org/user_images/owners_survey_release.pdf
Iowa lab cited for excellence
The Grinnell College Conard Environmental Research Area Education Center, Kellogg, Iowa, won an honor award in the Sustainable Design/Institutional category of the 2007 Design Awards competition administered by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Designed by Holabird & Root LLP, Chicago, the 650-m2 classroom and lab facility is situated in a nature preserve remote from the main Grinnell campus, and is virtually self-sufficient in resource use. Daylighting, geothermal heating, and a water-collecting roof that feeds greenhouses and toilets contributed to the project’s high marks, according to judges.
www.aiachicago.org/special_features/2007DEA/index.asp
December 13, 2007
- GM sold on China
- Building team, MIT duke it out over Stata
- New LEED standard helps to “green” existing buildings
- More precious than platinum?
- Ancient code, new lab design awards
- Survey: “green” vs greenbacks
GM sold on China
Friction over allegedly purloined automotive designs has clouded General Motors short-term future in China, but the auto company remains committed to growth in the fastest-growing car culture in the world.
The company intends to build two new wholly owned research facilities in Shanghai, focused on development of alternative fuels, advanced alternative energy propulsion systems, and manufacturer energy efficiency. The facilities will add to GM’s established research capabilities in Shanghai, where it already employees a team of 1,300 in cooperation with its Chinese joint venture, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC).
The first phase, the GM Center for Advanced Science and Research, is due to be completed sometime next year; about $250 million will be spent on the new research campus, including both offices and labs. In a separate initiative, GM and SAIC are providing a $5 million grant to Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, to establish a program in advanced automotive energy research. This move will give GM closer access to government officials there.
Rick Wagoner, GM’s chairman and chief executive, says that it was essential to do advanced research in China so as to adapt technologies quickly to locally sold models. G.M.’s sales in China have grown to an estimated 1 million this year from 20,000 in 1999, making it the company’s second-largest market after the United States.
Mr. Wagoner insisted that GM could keep control of intellectual property in China even while doing cutting-edge research here. “We think it’s a prudent tradeoff and we think the risk is manageable,” he says.
Citing a “very comfortable” partnership with Chinese automotive joint venture Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., Kevin Wale, president of GM’s China operations, says that SAIC’s recent introduction of its own sedans had shown “no significant impact” on GM’s own sales.
Chinese automakers have repeatedly triggered confrontations with Western automakers by introducing vehicles that appear identical to Western models, but there has not yet been a case of a Chinese automaker copying advanced Western engine technology
GM’s largest hybrid car research efforts will remain in the United States, but research will also be done collaboratively in China and information will be shared with China from GM’s partnerships with universities around the world.
GM is not the only major auto firm to declare their intentions to locate technology centers in China. Honda, Ford, Volkswagen and others are planning to build their own research buildings, though none have been as aggressive as GM in transferring technology to China.
This week’s announcement—in development for weeks—coincidentally came right after the Chinese government’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission disclosed nearly a week ago that it is drafting stringent local content rules for alternative fuel vehicles to qualify for likely government subsidies. The rules will require that key components be made in China, and are designed to prevent inadvertent support of imports, such as Toyota’s Prius. The cars are assembled in China, but Toyota ships the critical components in sealed boxes from factories in Japan.
GM’s existing joint venture research center mainly takes vehicle designs from GM’s American and European operations and tailors them to the Chinese market. It does so by adding features like wider pillars separating the rear side windows from the rear window—the wider pillars are popular because they provide greater privacy for rear seat occupants in a country where many hire chauffeurs even for mid-sized cars.
According to Wagoner, the joint venture may start to do development work for GM operations elsewhere.
While the new research centers are intended to help GM compete in China, the plans are feeding concern among engineers in GM’s operations in the Detroit area and in Australia, a rival base for GM engineering for Asian markets. The joint venture makes use of Chinese engineers earning considerably less than half of their American and Australian counterparts’ pay, although Chinese engineering salaries are climbing swiftly.
GM executives have repeatedly insisted over the years that while GM and SAIC engineers work side by side at the joint venture, elaborate computer firewalls prevent confidential GM information from reaching SAIC. SAIC, meanwhile, has rotated some of its best executives through the joint venture as part of a broad effort to learn the latest Western automotive technologies in preparation for eventual exports.
The new, wholly owned G.M. research center will work on alternative fuels like ethanol; electric vehicle technology, including hybrids and fuel cells; and energy efficiency in the manufacturing process, including by suppliers in the production of auto parts.
Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research, development and strategic planning, says that the Chinese government did not want to rely on ethanol from corn and other food, so the research would focus on grass and other plants that are not edible and cannot be grown in areas suitable for growing food.
Wagoner initially said that the company would spend $250 million on the new research center, but later corrected himself to say that GM would spend this sum on a new corporate campus in the Shanghai area that would include administrative offices as well as research facilities. GM officials declined to provide the precise cost and employment at the new research center by itself.
SOURCE: New York Times
Building team, MIT duke it out over Stata
Frank Gehry is a household name for many largely on the strength of his famous Guggenheim Museum, which has sparked a tourist boom in Bilboa, Spain. Colder climes, however, may not be as friendly to the architect’s designs.
The iconoclastic Stata Center at MIT—a $300 million facility for computer, information, and intelligence sciences that opened with great fanfare in 2004—is the subject of a lawsuit filed in a Boston court by MIT against design architect Frank Gehry’s firm, Gehry Partners, and builder Skanska USA. MIT says the 66,890 m2 building, with its unconventional massing and wildly skewed walls, is leaky, and that efflorescence and mold are a problem on the brick exterior.
The school alleges that the adjacent outdoor amphitheatre is characterized by cracked masonry, efflorescence, and poor drainage. Snow and ice sliding from the roof has also been a problem. None of the parties are commenting officially, but Gehry has previously stated that these kinds of “fairly minor” issues are to be expected in such a complex building. Skanska says it’s committed to a resolution, and in the past has stated anonymously that it had warned Gehry about potential design flaws. The suit does not specify an amount for damages, although MIT reveals in the suit, filed Oct. 31 at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, that it paid Gehry Partners $15 million to design the center. The suit further claims that Gehry Partners “failed to provide design services and drawings in accordance with the applicable standard of care” and that “MIT has suffered considerable damage, in the form of investigatory, redesign, and remedial work, as a result of the Defendants’ failures.”
Gehry spoke to the New York Times in November, commenting that “these things are complicated, and they involved a lot of people, and you never quite know where they went wrong. A building goes together with seven billion pieces of connective tissue. The chances of it getting done ever without something colliding or some misstep are small. I think the issues are fairly minor.”
The Stata Center lawsuit is attracting considerable attention even outside the architecture and construction community, mainly because of Gehry's name recognition, but it’s hardly unique. For instance, insurer Victor O. Schinnerer/CNA reports an annual average of 15 to 20 claims per 100 policy holders among its architect clients. John Connelly, a partner at the Peabody & Arnold law firm in Boston and a co-chair of the Boston Bar Association's Construction Law Committee, observes that the majority of such cases end in settlements and that many devolve into finger pointing.
The tit-for-tat has already begun. Gehry, for instance, told The New York Times that “MIT is after our insurance.”
In a Boston Globe article last month, meanwhile, an anonymous executive at Skanska’s Boston office blamed Gehry for problems with the project, contending that the architect ignored warnings both from Skanska and a consulting company about the design of his amphitheater prior to its construction.
The MIT lawsuit is not Gehry’s first. In July 2006 it settled a suit concerning cost overruns at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Los Angeles. And in December 2004, the firm had agreed to sandblast parts of the Concert Hall in response to a report that found that the building’s metallic surface was producing too much glare.
Gehry designed the Stata Center to unify scattered academic departments and to encourage interaction among scientists and students. It has won many accolades and awards, including a 2005 Grand Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies. But some professors and students are less than pleased with it. The Tech, an MIT school newspaper, reported in May 2004 that students complained the building is too loud, complicated, distracting, and fails to provide occupants with enough privacy.
“It’s no doubt always debatable about the merits of such lawsuits,” observes Richard Fitzgerald, executive director of the Boston Society of Architects. “Ideally in the emerging age of integrated practice there will be no more lawsuits.”
SOURCE: Architectural Record; PHOTO: Roland Halbe
New LEED standard helps to “green” existing buildings
The federal Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program continues its steady growth into all sectors of construction. As this happens, existing standards are also in a state of regular revision.
An updated version of LEED for existing buildings, now referred to as LEED-EB Operations and Maintenance, will include fewer program prerequisites, more emphasis on O&M, updated reference standards, and expanded sections on water efficiency, energy performance, building commissioning, and green cleaning. The aim is to better differentiate LEED-EB from the LEED-NC new construction standard, according to Doug Gatlin of the U.S. Green Building Council, which administers LEED. The International Facilities Managers Assn. and the Building Owners and Managers Assn. cooperated with the USGBC in crafting the new standard, which is expected to launch next year after a public comment period ends.
To see a ratings checklist, the credit system, and public comments to these revisions, visit: www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=221
SOURCE: U.S. Green Building Council
More precious than platinum?
Though not yet completed, the Omega Center for Sustainable Living, Rhinebeck, N.Y., has already been honored for its design. The new building project was recognized at Chicago’s Greenbuild 2007 Conference & Expo in December, earning an award in the Living Building Competition.
The contest, created by the U.S. Green Building Council in partnership with the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, celebrates the country’s highest level of environmental performance currently achieved, with criteria intended to exceed “Platinum” standards under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Created for the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies by BNIM Architects, the Omega Center will be an environmental research and education center that includes an innovative bio-based wastewater treatment and recycling system, green energy, and other sustainability strategies.
The core of the center will be a 418 m2 greenhouse containing a water filtration system called the Eco Machine. This living system will use plants, bacteria, algae, snails and fungi to recycle about 5 million gallons of wastewater a year that will be used to irrigate gardens and campus grounds.
The center received an On the Boards Award since it has not yet been completed; ground was broken in early October.
SOURCE: Omega Institute
Ancient code, new lab design awards
The Design-Build Institute of America adheres to an integrated delivery process for construction that it says was inspired by the standards of ancient civilizations dating back to Mesopotamia. The Code of Hummurabi—established around 1800 B.C.—dictated accountability upon master builders for both design and construction.
With this tradition in mind, the institute recognizes superb construction and design projects every year. New laboratory buildings of note in America to receive awards in 2007 include the 25,548 m2 National Security Sciences Building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., which won an excellence award in the Public Sector Building/Over $15 Million category. The building was designed by HDR Architects and built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. The DBIA also presented a merit award to the Baylor Univ. Sciences Building in the Private Sector Building/Over $15 Million category. The 47,194 m2 facility was designed by HarleyEllis and built by The Beck Group.
SOURCE: Design-Build Institute of America
Survey: “green” vs greenbacks
Green building is an attractive approach to new construction, but many wonder whether it’s actually worth it when discussion turns to the bottom line.
The “2007 Green Survey: Existing Buildings,” conducted by Real Estate Media, the Building Owners & Managers Assn. International, and the U.S. Green Building Council, indicates that real estate companies do think sustainable design is good for business. The dividends, so far, are being measured in terms of ROI and public perception, if not yet in rent premiums.
This first-time industry poll sought response from 392 professionals representing a variety of disciplines. The findings were released this month at USGBC’s Greenbuild 2007 Conference & Expo in Chicago.
According to the results, the fill rate for sustainable buildings is high (more than 75%, according to 77% of the respondents). About 30% of respondents said green buildings command higher rents, though only about 13% said “green” was a primary selling point for more than 25% of their tenants. Respondents tended to think green construction added only a marginal amount to building costs, most of which can be offset through energy and/or tax credits. However, about 80% said the maintenance of green buildings costs more than conventional maintenance (estimated at 5 to 10% more by most respondents). About 60% think the return on investment for going green is, or will be, positive.
The survey reveals an industry that’s still figuring out how to deal with the concept of green and its potential benefits. While the majority of those who took the September poll attest to a commitment to green, their budgets often don’t reflect it—at least not as a separate line item. Training is not yet a part of many firms’ green strategies and neither, apparently, is performance monitoring of sustainable systems. Furthermore, respondents often struggle with how to parse out green’s advantages from other building amenities.
For a full analysis of the survey results, go to: www.globest.com/news/1037_1037/more/166299-1.html.
SOURCE: GlobeSt.com
November 20, 2007
- Salk on watch list
- Research campus takes shape in N.C.
- Louisville plans major lab expansion
- Fed labs recognized
- NREL construction push continues
- Consensus construction documents released
Salk on watch list
The World Monuments Fund, a nonprofit organization, has included the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif., on its 2008 Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. Designed by Louis Kahn in collaboration with Luis Barragan, the research facility’s iconic courtyard is flanked by lab buildings, framing a famed view of ocean and sky. The Salk has announced a plan to add above- and below-ground space, including labs and administrative and support space, more than doubling the existing 19,510 m2 size. The WMF contends the plan would “partially obscure and thereby destroy the iconic view.” Projects placed on the watch list, which is issued every two years, are judged in terms of their significance, the urgency of the threat, and the viability of a solution to remove the threat. Salk officials argue that their intentions reflect the original plans for the site, and that the view will not be affected, according to computer simulations.
Other sites on the World Monuments Fund’s list include historic Route 66, U.S.; St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK; Historic Center of Mexico City, Mexico; and Dehli Heritage City, India. Founded in 1965, the World Monuments Fund has embarked on more than 450 conservation projects in more than 90 countries. From its headquarters in New York City — and offices affiliates in Paris, London, Madrid, and Lisbon — World Monuments Fund works with local partners and communities to identify and save heritage through project planning, fieldwork, advocacy, grant-making, education, and on-site training. Every two years, World Monuments Fund issues its list of 100 Most Endangered Sites, a global call to action on behalf of sites in need of immediate intervention.
SOURCE: World Monuments Watch
www.worldmonumentswatch.org
Research campus takes shape in N.C.
Public and private partners envision a major boost to research in the Tarheel State in the form of a 141.6-hectare research park in Kannapolis. The North Carolina Research Campus, north of Charlotte, is the brainchild of entrepreneur David H. Murdock, owner of Castle & Cooke Inc. and Dole Food Co. Inc. Murdock is investing about $1 billion in development and construction, and another $100 million to fund strategic biotech startups. Academic partners include the Univs. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Charlotte, as well as Duke Univ., North Carolina State Univ., North Carolina A&T Univ., and North Carolina Central Univ. Initial projects include the UNC Nutrition Research Institute, a 14,864-m2 facility for use by researchers from multiple UNC campuses, and a Center for Agricultural Genetics, to be operated by North Carolina State Univ. Nearing completion is the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory Building, a $200 million, 28,893-m2 facility created to provide sophisticated scientific equipment.
SOURCE:North Carolina Research Campus
www.ncresearchcampus.net
Louisville plans major lab expansion
The Univ. of Louisville, in cooperation with Maryland-based developer Wexford Science + Technology, will expand its downtown Health Science Center in a $2.5 billion plan encompassing up to 287,290 m2 of construction. The two-decade plan includes as many as six new lab/office buildings, as well as additional research facilities, administrative buildings, and parking space. The state of Kentucky will provide $1.8 billion in funding, to be augmented by about $700 million from the private sector. The intention of encouraging business development in the sector, including a research park named for the historic Haymarket area, will also be supported by creation of a tax increment finance district. Proposed construction of a new highway ramp would make the site more easily accessible from I-65.
At the announcement at the Haymarket site at Jefferson and Preston streets in downtown Louisville, officials said the TIF increment may add up to $300 million, enough to build out the Haymarket Business and Research Park and other parts of the UofL Health Sciences Center Master Plan. The development of a 30-block health sciences area will occur over the next two decades in an area that includes the Univ. of Louisville Health Sciences Center.
Among other things, it will support construction of research labs and other buildings; hiring of new faculty, and researchers and support staff at UofL; growth of new businesses to generate economic activity across Kentucky; and infrastructure for researchers and entrepreneurs to take health science technology to the marketplace.
“Today, medical research, discovery and innovation in Louisville are at an all-time high. To bring all potential advancements to fruition for patients, however, we must expand research and clinical areas, infrastructure and specialized commercial space that specifically support the effort,” said Univ. of Louisville President James Ramsey.
Officials hope to begin initial investment and construction soon after TIF approval by the Louisville Metro Council and the Commonwealth’s TIF Commission. Parking on the Haymarket lot, though, will not be affected in the near future.
SOURCE: Univ. of Louisville
http://php.louisville.edu/news/news.php?news=939
Fed labs recognized
The FDA Engineering & Physics Laboratory, Silver Spring, Md., has been honored in Mid-Atlantic Construction magazine’s Best of 2007 awards. The 12,542-m2 lab (profiled in the September 2007 issue of Laboratory Design) received an Award of Merit in the Institutional category, based on its ability to “best achieve the established goals of the project team, overcome significant challenges, adopt innovative approaches, and exhibit exceptional teamwork.” The project team included the FDA and GSA, designer KlingStubbins in association with RTKL, construction manager Heery-Tishman, and general contractor Tompkins Builders. Mid-Atlantic Construction also prepares annual rankings of significant projects, by construction budget, in the states it covers. The 14,864-m2, $120 million National Biodefense and Countermeasures Center, Fort Detrick, was named the No. 4 project in Maryland for 2007. The lab, which includes BSL-2, -3, and -4 facilities, is owned by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security and is expected to open late next year. The project team includes architect Perkins+Will and construction manager Gilbane.
The FDA laboratory was one of 46 projects in 16 categories honored by the jury. The categories spanned a range from high-rise residential to education to sports and entertainment.
SOURCE: Mid-Atlantic Contruction
http://midatlantic.construction.com
NREL construction push continues
Hot on the heels of scoring LEED Platinum for its Science & Technology Facility, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colo., has broken ground on another “green” building. The Research Support Facility, expected to be completed next summer, will be a 19,510-m2 building designed to be a model for sustainable, high-performance design, and will provide Department of Energy-owned work space for administrative staff who currently occupy leased space. Two major renewable power projects are also underway at the site: a Renewable Fuel Heating Plant that aims to use biomass to cut NRELs’s future natural gas use by 75%, and the Mesa Top PV Project, a new 5-acre photovoltaic array that will help to power the main campus. The projects reflect NREL’s commitment to the department’s Transformational Energy Action Management Initiative (TEAM), a program aimed at maximizing energy efficiency and renewable energy generation across all Department of Energy properties.
“Through TEAM Initiative, and exemplary projects like these at NREL, DOE is on track to meet and exceed its commitment to reduce energy intensity (energy consumption per square foot) at its facilities by 30% nationwide, saving taxpayers roughly $90 million a year,” said department Secretary Samuel W. Bodman.
NREL’s 210,000 square-foot Research Support Facility will make substantial use of daylighting, dramatically reducing energy use and providing a pleasant and productive working environment. The RSF has been designed to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) Platinum designation—the highest benchmark awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council.
NREL’s Renewable Fuel Heating Plant will provide heat to the RSF and other research buildings on the Laboratory’s South Table Mountain campus by using biomass such as wood chips from forest thinning along Colorado’s Front Range. This Plant will be constructed adjacent to the existing Field Test Laboratory Building, and operate in conjunction with an existing natural gas-fueled boiler system. It is expected to be completed in May 2008. The Renewable Fuels Heating Plant will use an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) with a third party provider, Ameresco Energy Services Co. Under the ESPC, Ameresco will pay for construction of the project and be repaid with NREL’s energy cost savings.
The Mesa Top PV Project will be located near the NREL Solar Radiation Research Laboratory, and will produce an estimated 750kW of clean, renewable electric power from solar energy that will be used on site. This five-acre span of solar panels is expected to be completed in May 2008; the installation could provide up to seven percent of the electricity NREL uses. This project uses several agreements involving DOE’s Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and Golden Field Office, SunEdison, and Xcel Energy. Under these agreements, SunEdison will develop the solar energy system, and in turn, receive federal tax credits, along with revenues from both the sale of electricity to DOE and Xcel Energy's purchase of the Renewable Energy Credits associated with the generation. DOE will purchase that power on behalf of NREL at a price equal to what it currently pays for electricity from Xcel Energy.
The mission of NREL, situated on more than 625 acres across multiple sites near Golden, Colo., is renewable energy and energy efficiency R&D.
SOURCE: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
www.nrel.gov/news/press/2007/534.html
Consensus construction documents released
A collaborative group of 20 construction-industry associations has released ConsensusDOCS, a collection of more than 70 collaboratively drafted standard construction contracts. The collection represents the input of designers, owners, contractors, subcontractors, and surety bond firms, and is intended to safeguard projects’ best interest rather than a single-party interest. The documents are designed to “establish a new ‘gold standard’ for defining contractual relationships in design and construction projects,” according to E. Colette Nelson, executive vice president of the American Subcontractors Assn. Inc.
Currently, a variety of construction associations produce standard form construction contracts. However, standard contracts published by one association, according the consensus group, are perceived as ultimately favoring that association's membership. There is also a growing industry frustration that heavily modified standard form documents hardly resemble the original text. Sometimes "modifications" are actually longer than the unrecognizable standard form, they say.
ConsensusDOCS is designed to provide choice in contract documents because all parties were invited to the drafting table and had a full vote in deciding final contract terms. The ConsensusDOCS drafting process is similar to negotiations for a specific project contract.
The group provides, by annual subscriptions, a software tool called DocuBuilder that assists users in creating, amending and customizing the ConsensusDOCS contract documents. Subscriptions are offered in different areas, from short forms to complete packages.
The document series include:
• General Contracting (200 Series)
• Collaborative Documents (300 Series)
• Design-Build (400 Series)
• Construction Management at Risk (500 Series)
• Subcontracting (700 Series)
• Program Management (800 Series)
SOURCE: ConsensusDOCS
www.consensusdocs.org
Saudis plan huge science campus
The government of Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans for KAUST, the King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology. The graduate-level research university will conduct classes and research in English, focusing on areas of local priority, including energy and environment, biosciences and engineering, materials science and engineering, and applied mathematics and computer science. A $10 billion federal endowment is supporting the plan. The site is a 3,602-hectare parcel on the eastern shore of the Red Sea near Rabigh, about 50 miles north of Jiddah. Labs and other facilities, including housing, recreational amenities, and schools for children, are intended break new ground in building sustainability; Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, St. Louis, Mo., is consulting. The first buildings are expected to open in 2009. At maturity, planners expect the campus community to number about 20,000 people. Officials maintain that academic and religious freedom will not be infringed upon, despite the Saudis’ reputation for conservatism; critics say the plan is a vanity project, and that money might be better spent on existing schools.
SOURCE:King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology
www.kaust.edu.sa
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Editor's Take |
Recycling on the ISS
November 17, 2008
As the astronauts offload the cargo from the Shuttle Endeavour to the ISS today to facilitate growing the crew from three to six astronauts, one item in particular is getting a lot of press: the new toilet. This is not just any toilet: this is a $250 million loo that will recycle the astronauts’ urine, sweat, and other wastewater back into drinkable water. This is a great application of technology and could cut the annual delivery water costs for the station by about 743 gallons, according to NASA officials. Besides which, this filtering process is just an accelerated version of what happens here on Earth to produce our drinking water. In fact, the water from this system is up to some of the highest standards of water in the U.S.
With all of that said, I’m not sure I’d be able to stomach the recycled water, especially after reading Endeavour’s mission specialist Don Pettit’s description of the system as a high-tech coffee maker: "It turns yesterday's coffee into today's coffee and, in turn, it makes today's coffee into tomorrow's coffee. It's one of these great, circle of life things." Maybe for the astronauts, but not for me. I’ll take my morning coffee without thinking about what it was yesterday, thank you.
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