As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to look back and take stock. For the USTAR initiative, the year has been one of momentum building and an increasing pace of achievement. Today’s article is an update on our building projects.
Leading researchers and industry will utilize two state of-the-art interdisciplinary research and development facilities coming to Utah as a result of a key program of the USTAR initiative.
The primary purpose of two new buildings – rising on the Utah State University and University of Utah campuses – is to give our research teams top-of-the-line facilities in which to conduct their work in USTAR’s key innovation focus areas.
In addition, it is estimated that the projects are employing as many as 800 construction workers in the second half of 2009.
The buildings when complete should also foster the connection between industry, entrepreneurship and research. Each facility will serve as an industry magnet, encouraging collaboration between researchers and industry experts.
The USTAR projects are employing a significant number of construction workers.
USU – The USU building will house researchers pursuing advanced nutrition, veterinary and other life science efforts. This 110,000 square feet building is located in USU’s Innovation Campus in North Logan.
Ground breaking took place October 17, 2008 and opening is slated in 2011. USU is seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification for the building. Highlights include a Bio Safety Level 3+ lab (a very high level of biocontainment), a clinical nutrition center, and life science labs.
Gramoll Construction is the Construction Manager General Contractor (CMGC) and AJC Architects is the Architectural and Engineering (AE) firm and design team lead. Payette Associates is designing some of the lab space.
Workers are busy on USU’s Innovation Campus project.
U of U – At the U of U, Layton Construction, Inc. is the Construction Manager General Contractor (CMGC) and Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architecture is the Architectural and Engineering (AE) firm and design team lead (with local collaboration with Prescott Muir).
Ground breaking took place on Earth Day, April 22, 2009, and construction of the 200,000 square foot facility should be complete in 2012. Highlights include state-of-the-art nanofabrication and optical imaging facilities, and neuroscience and biotechnology labs.
In the spring of 2009, the Sorenson Legacy Foundation donated $15 million, and the new building will be named the “James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building – A USTAR Innovation Center.” This follows a $1.25 million donation from the Micron Technology Foundation. The new building is envisioned to be part of a four-building interdisciplinary quadrangle located between lower and upper campus.
Much thought has gone into the location of the building, its design, its equipment, and other elements that will encourage interaction and collaboration across disciplines.
“The building site both physically and academically unites the health sciences campus with the main campus and its basic research resources. The building will bring talented people together to cross traditional boundaries and accelerate research at the interfaces of medicine, pharmacy, engineering, computer science and life sciences,” said Dinesh Patel, USTAR Governing Authority chairman. “We intend the building to be at the crossroads of interdisciplinary translational research on campus and across the state.”
Artist’s rendition of the U of U USTAR building.
Earth Day was an appropriate launch date. The energy efficient building (planned for LEED Gold Certification) should reduce energy use and cost from current laboratory code requirements by a minimum of 40 percent. Daylighting will allow natural light to reach at least 75 percent of the building’s occupied spaces, and sunshades will modulate light as it enters the building at different times of day and from different angles throughout the year.
View real-time progress at USU at http://webcam.usu.edu/ustar
View an animated fly-through of the U of U building at http://newmedia.innovationutah.com/video-audio/.
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