Novartis Nears Completion of $600 Million Biomedical Research Institute Expansion in Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Swiss drug giant Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) (Basel, Switzerland) is nearing the end of construction on a $600 million expansion at its Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When complete, the company will have added more than 550,000 square feet of space, bringing its total space in the city to more than 1 million square feet.

Under a lease agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for an additional 4-acre parcel, the company is renovating an existing 33,000-square-foot facility (Building N42) and constructing two more, including one at seven stories that is 262,000 square feet, and another at eight stories that is 277,000 square feet.

The project team includes Cannon Design (Boston, Massachusetts) and Skanska USA (Boston), along with Maya Lin, the artist who designed the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. The spaces will allow collaboration and cross-disciplinary communication and research. Housing flexible laboratory spaces that can accommodate multiple avenues of sciences, the project is set to achieve a LEED Gold certification.

Novartis made news and won the hearts of Cambridge locals in 2004 when it chose the city as the new global headquarters of the NIBR, and picked the 500,000-square-foot former New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) Candy building as the site. The NECCO building, when first opened in 1927, was the world's largest candy-manufacturing plant.

Novartis transformed the former candy plant into a top-flight research facility, while retaining important elements of its origin. The company went so far as to incorporate the colors from an old NECCO tower, which resembled its namesake multi-colored candy roll, into the new design. Retaining the spirit of the former tenant was a nod from Novartis to Cambridge's abiding respect for historical landmarks.

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