University of Wisconsin-Madison Continues $800 Million Life Science Building Boom with Construction Kickoff on Institutes for Discovery

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Reported by Annette Krueger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--School may be out but the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin is swarming with the construction trades. The school recently began construction of its long-anticipated Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building. The $180 million project is the latest entry in an avalanche of construction activity at the campus, all targeting life sciences to the tune of more than $750 million in total investment value (TIV) for 11 projects, according to a recent analysis of Industrial Info's Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database. Each project represents a healthy average TIV of $68 million. Some were recently completed, and the others are in various stages of development. The capital investment planning underscores the state's determination to solidify its inclusion as a key national player focused on the fields of biotechnology, health sciences and stem cell research.

Click on the image at right for a list of projects at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

An interesting component of the Institutes for Discovery project is the inclusion of both public and private research facilities. This collaborative effort will hopefully lead to a much quicker timeframe in moving from a concept in the lab to a commercially viable product. Designed by Madison's' J.H. Findorff & Son Incorporated, the 300,000-square-foot facility is scheduled for completion in 2010. M. A. Mortenson Company (Minneapolis, Minnesota) is serving as construction manager for the project, which Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle hopes will help his state claim 10% of the emerging stem cell market.

One of the more recently completed projects is the $120 million Microbial Sciences Building. Finished in mid-2007 and designed by Milwaukee's Plunkett Raysich Architects, the 330,000-square-foot building will provide laboratories, including Biosafety Level 3, for research focusing on bacteriology, immunology and toxicology. The project should be complete later this year.

Another active major project that is under way and carrying a $161 million TIV is the Interdisciplinary Research Center. Oscar J. Boldt Construction (Madison) is handling construction of the project, which will add a 473,000-square-foot facility to centralize and expand virology, genetics, cellular and other research disciplines, as well as add pilot-scale fermentation capacity. The Zimmerman Design Group (Madison) served as the architect of the project, which should be completed later this year.

It appears that virtually every science-oriented department in the school will eventually have new and/or improved research facilities. Flad & Associates (Madison) is on board to design a 38,000-square-foot building equipped to expand biochemistry research capacity. The $117 million project could be under construction early next year. In terms of not-so-little monkey business, early plans are under way to possibly invest $39 million for the construction of a primate research facility. Construction could begin in 2009 on that project, which will add 65,000 square feet and house the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology.

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